Dr Róisín O’Shea, Dr Sinéad Conneely and Shane Dempsey, who are experienced family mediators and researchers, have been awarded a contract by the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs to do a study on “Use and place of family mediation across Member States’ legal frameworks”; to be completed and ready for presentation by December 2026.
This research project on the use and place of family mediation across Member States follows the request of the European Parliament Coordinator on Children’s Rights (the EP Coordinator), the European Parliament’s (EP) Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI), to commission a research project on the above topic with a view to provide authoritative and timely information to its Members.
This study would aim at mapping access to mediation across Member States and highlight differences and similarities in the provision of mediation in family disputes involving children, such as custody, visiting rights, contacts and maintenance. It would also aim to identify best practices in establishing high-quality mediation services for families and to examine existing requirements for family mediators in each jurisdiction.
O’Shea and Conneely have previously carried out research in the Irish District Court observing family law cases, analysed by Dempsey, with findings published between 2019 and 2024 in the Irish Journal of Family Law. In 2020 Conneely & O’Shea were commissioned to write the chapter on family mediation in Ireland for Bloomsbury Professional’s UK & Ireland book, ‘Family Mediation Contemporary Issues’. Between 2022 and 2023 Dr O’Shea and Dr Conneely carried out research into sentencing in domestic violence cases for the Judicial Council’s Sentencing Information and Guidelines Committee, and in 2024 ‘Family Mediation: The International Context’ by Conneely and O’Shea was published in the Journal of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers Vol 36.
O’Shea and Dempsey have recently completed work on an International Code of Practice for Family Mediators which will be launched in September as part of the work of the International Family Mediation Project.
In welcoming the opportunity to carry out this research Dr O’Shea said,
“this study will look at the state of play in relation to family mediation and its inter-section with legal systems across the Member States and we will have an in-depth look at 5 Member States, including Ireland; it is a fantastic opportunity to scope out what is happening for families across the EU post the break-down of relationships, and in particular where family mediation fits.”