Varsities to offer ADR courses

By JACOB POK
FOUR universities are interested in running alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mediation courses, Justice Ambeng Kandakasi says.
He said the universities of Papua New Guinea, Goroka, Technology and Divine Word had expressed interest in running the course.
Kandakasi, who is the chairman of the ADR committee in the court system, said this during the recent launch of the National Judicial Staff Services corporate plan.
The ADR committee is happy to take up all the interest and translate them into reality by working with each of the institutions that has shown interest in applying mediation and other forms of ADR.
He said the ADR course in UPNG was an elective course focusing on the principles involved in the forms of mediation.
He said following a decision of the law school board last September, it was decided in light of the introduction of ADR in the National Court that the course would become part of the compulsory course for all law students.
He said the vice-chancellor of the University of Goroka expressed similar interest in getting the university involved in the teaching and practising ADR with a view to saving more than K2 million spent each year in legal fees.
He said the University of Technology provided a course on conflict resolution.
“However, it now wants to have the course revised with the assistance of the ADR committee to take into account the developments on the ADR front to make it more practical as most of the students were in the resource extraction and development sectors which involved landownership and other disputes,” he said.
Kandakasi said the Divine Word University offered a course on mediation and had expressed interest in working with the ADR committee to have the course revised and to take into account the ADR developments.
The ADR system was officially introduced into the judicial system on June 18 last year.
It was set to resolve disputes in a fast, efficient and effective way.