THE ESSENCE AND LEGAL NATURE OF MEDIATION IN THE ECONOMIC PROCESS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT BODIES

Abstract

The article systematizes the essential features and determines the legal nature of mediation in the economic process of local self-government bodies. Among the above-mentioned approaches, the following are highlighted: a subject-oriented approach, based on determining the principles of the legal nature of mediation in the context of a reference point for the rights and interests of the parties and the activities of mediators in the settlement of disputes (including economic ones); an environmental approach to determining the legal nature of mediation in the settlement of economic disputes of local self-government bodies and participants in local communities, whose rights and interests are protected by these entities within their own competences, which is based on highlighting the advantages of mediation as a prerequisite for implementing this form of pre-trial resolution of economic disputes at the level of local or other territorial communities. When assessing the features of the legal nature of mediation in the economic process of local self-government bodies in the context of the emphasis on a subject-oriented approach, the composition of the principles of the legal nature of mediation in the context of a reference point on the rights and interests of the parties and the activities of mediators in the settlement of disputes (including economic ones) was determined, among which, in particular, the principle of voluntariness, the principle of confidentiality, the principles of impartiality and neutrality of the mediator, the principles of equality and self-determination of rights, the principle of independence were highlighted. Guided by the provisions of the main approaches to the interpretation and characteristics of the legal nature of mediation in the economic process of local self-government bodies, the author’s approach to determining the essence of the specified phenomenon was formulated. Namely, it is determined that mediation in the economic process of local self-government bodies is a pre-trial, voluntary, confidential, impartial, structured procedure, during which, with the assistance of mediators (who must be neutral, independent of the parties to the dispute, which ensures the equality of the rights and interests of the latter), attempts are made to resolve economic disputes using negotiations between local self-government bodies and other parties to economic relations, and which allows avoiding large expenditures of time and economic resources associated with litigation.