On 12 June 2010 it was announced in the Queen's Birthday Honours that Karl Mackie was appointed a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) by the UK Government for ‘services to mediation', the first citing of this reason for the award.
In 1996 the then Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, Lord Harry Woolf (who now retired is Chair of CEDR's International Advisory Council), published his 'Access To Civil Justice Report' which encouraged the use of ADR, followed by the Civil Procedure Rules in 1999 which enabled judges to impose cost sanctions to either party when ADR was refused or ignored.
These guidelines, along with case law (for example Dunnet v Railtrack, 2002) and subsequent clarification of the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) saw the growth of the use of ADR and in particular mediation in the UK.
CEDR states that all money raised from its activities get put into the promotion of mediation and ADR, through events, schemes and running many services at cost.
CEDR runs a number of elements under this umbrella, which include: The Exchange Participant Network Programme – quarterly events and newsletter for mediators around the world (over 700 members).
[5] On November 9, 2011 it was announced that, the previous day, CEDR had acquired IDRS Ltd, the dispute resolution service of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.
Increasingly CEDR says it is called into organizations and disputes at an early stage to design a resolution system or training scheme.
The 2008 report[9] names law firms it worked with as Allen & Overy, Ashurst, Clifford Chance, Eversheds, Herbert Smith, Lewis Silkin, Lovells, Mayer Brown, Nabarro and Norton Rose.