Professional perspectives on characteristics of legitimacy in court-based mediation

Abstract

In Norway, court-based mediation involves judges, lawyers, and psychologists working as a mediation team to bring settlement and avoid litigation. This article reports from a qualitative study with twenty-two judges, psychologists, and lawyers from four district courts. The purpose was to identify the characteristics of custody mediation from their perspectives. Findings show that the professionals were concerned with four areas: (1) discovery, (2) structure, (3) expertise, and (4) authority. Findings are presented and then discussed in the context of literature on collaborative learning, legitimacy, and procedural justice. In this article, we integrate study results, Raz's theory of legitimacy, and Engström's activity systems framework to argue that legitimacy is realized through a co-configurative process that facilitates negotiating robust parenting agreements.