President, Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongban -Mensem, yesterday, in Abuja said it was essential for the judiciary to rise up to meet the challenges of adjudication in the 21st century.
She stated this in Abuja as the Court of Appeal formally kick-started Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) system.
The president who was speaking at the inaugural court session of the appellate court’s mediation centre expressed optimism that the challenges, when met, would attract more international trade and foreign direct investment to the country.
She also said good performance on the part of the country’s judiciary would improve employment and domestic economic growth.
Declaring the inaugural court session open, Dongban-Mensem recalled that the new system was initiated in 2018 as a way of ensuring speedy and efficient dispensation of justice.
She also said the system was to promote an amicable alternative to the adversarial justice system.
She further said that the ADR represented an innovation, which if fully utilised, would introduce a multi-track justice delivery system to the appellate level and further boost justice delivery.
“Appellate mediation is now part of the global legal lexicon, straddling the appellate courts of countries like the United States of America, United Kingdom and Thailand. The overriding objective of the Court of Appeal’s mediation centre is to promote mediation and such other alternative dispute resolution mechanism towards enhancing the administration of justice and speedy resolution of disputes,” she said.
The appellate court president said the new system would assist parties in reaching an expeditious resolution of their disputes in good faith in a fair and efficient manner.
“We must not only build a structure, but a mindset that will drive the process of alternative, less expensive and less onerous dispute resolution process such as mediation. There is also need for us to build a culture where peaceful resolution of disputes becomes more attractive than litigation.”