The parties are ready to go, having agreed to arbitration, and some basics, in last week's episode. This week brings the real negotiation: How long is this arbitration going to take?

In this week's episode, the first of two parts, Roberto Calabresi, a Florence, Italy, litigator, returns to IDN to play the role of a claimant in a hypothetical contractual dispute that has gone to arbitration.

This week, IDN host Mike McIlwrath opens up about one of his employer's mediations. He does much more than pull back the curtains on General Electric Co.'s ADR processes and procedures in a personal injury case: He gathers the mediator, well-known U.K. neutral Tony Allen, and the employee, Gavin Slessor, of Scotland, who lost his right arm and leg in a workplace accident. Hear what Slesser did to get to mediation, and make it work, as well as why GE decided to mediate the case. And find out what happened in the participants' own words, and how they feel about the results.

Here's the finale of a three-part series distilled from Mike's final discussion with arbitration scholar Thomas Walde, who passed away in a household accident last October after these interviews were recorded. The concluding part covers the goal of the get together: Mike and Thomas look at actual arbitrator resumes, and discuss how they evaluate the people they hire. IDN listeners this week will get an insider's view of how sophisticated international arbitration customers view the tribunal members they're about to hire. For more of Mike's reflections on this series, and his work with the late Prof. Walde, visit IDN on Facebook.

This week, IDN host Mike McIlwrath returns to one of his favorite subjects, gathering information when choosing a neutral. It's the second of a three-part series distilled from Mike's final discussion with arbitration scholar Thomas Walde, who passed away in a household accident last October a couple of weeks after these interviews were recorded. It's a provocative IDN, as the talk turns to the qualification of arbitrators, and how sex and age figure into parties' hiring assessments.

This week, more from IDN host Mike McIlwrath's conversation with Thomas Walde from last October, shortly before the arbitration scholar and theorist died in an accident. In IDN 47, which debuted on Oct. 24, less than two weeks after his untimely death, Walde discussed arbitration advocacy. Next week, Walde on what parties want in an arbitrator, and why.

International Dispute Negotiation host Michael McIlwrath asks how long should it take to complete an arbitration. In-house attorneys, law-firm veterans, academics, and business executives all have expectations about arbitration. This week, Mike provides a compilation of answers about those expectations.

That's the gist of the question that International Mediation Institute head, Michael Leathes, asks International Dispute Negotiation host Mike McIlwrath, to open Part II of their conversation on credentialing mediators with IMI.

This week's IDN podcast provides details on a Netherlands-based initiative targeted at improving and expanding mediation use worldwide. Michael Leathes, who heads the International Mediation Institute, a nonprofit based in the Hague, Netherlands, discusses in Part I of a two-part interview how his initiative accredit international mediators

International arbitration isn't working, according to Italian lawyer Daniele Menegatti, and while mediation could produce a "workable" solution under certain conditions, his one experience wasn't successful.