Main Models of Mediation and Their Distinctive Characteristics

Abstract

This article analyzes major mediation models and their distinctive characteristics, with particular attention to their applicability to family disputes. The study uses a qualitative doctrinal and comparative review of mediation scholarship, professional guidance, empirical family-dispute research, and selected international and national legal instruments. The analysis compares facilitative, evaluative, transformative, narrative, ecosystemic, provocative, intervention, shuttle, court-integrated, and co-mediation approaches according to the mediator’s role, degree of intervention, communication structure, principal objective, and suitability for family disputes. The results indicate that no single model is universally optimal. Facilitative and transformative approaches are especially relevant where party autonomy, communication, and post-separation relationships are central; evaluative techniques are useful where legal and financial uncertainty is substantial; narrative and ecosystemic approaches are valuable where conflict is strongly relational and contextual; while shuttle, co-mediation, and court-integrated procedures can address particular safety, complexity, or institutional needs. The discussion further shows that family mediation requires case screening, attention to power asymmetry and domestic abuse, child-focused safeguards, and flexible combination of techniques. The study concludes that a context-sensitive, mixed-model approach provides a stronger conceptual basis for developing effective family mediation practice, including in Uzbekistan.