NEW OHIO LAW Ohio has created a statewide, high- level commission armed with $1 mil- lion in initial funds and charged with fostering ADR for public and private disputes throughout the large Mid- western state.

The Ohio legislature created the Commission on Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management “to make conflict resolution tools available at all levels of our common life-in schools, in businesses, in neigh- borhoods, in the courts, and in gov- ernment agencies,” said Gov. Richard F. Celeste in signing the measure into law on August 17.

The statute goes into effect on No- vember 15, according to a Clevekml Plain Dealer article on the initiative. The commission will have a four- year mandate.

A main aim of the group is to de- velop “local programs that encour- age mediation, conciliation, mini- trials or nonbinding arbitration,” the newspaper reported. The state legis- lature-the General Assembly-ap- propriated $1 million for the com- mission toward this end; the group will seek other public and private grants as well.

The commission will have 12 members and will be under the joint direction of all three brariches of state government. The three branches will collectively appoint the panel too, with Governor Celeste and Ohio Supreme Court Chief Jus- tice Thomas J. Moyer naming four apiece, and the two houses of the legislature each designating two.

Governor Celeste has made the promotion of ADR one of the four main goals of his second term. 71‘wo years ago he named a “peace officer” to his senior staff whose sole respon- sibility is to formulate ADK policy and foster it in the state. (Alternatz-ries, November 1987.) That peace officer, Dennis P. Carey, played a large role in designing the commission plan.

Significantly, the Celeste ADR policy is aimed not only at reaping the time and cost savings of ADR for public and private disputants, but a h at attracting businesses 10 Ohio with the prospect of (pick and eco- nomical ways to resolve their com- mercial cases.

PACIFIC ADR For three years Altemutiurs has re- ported on the growth of ADK ceii- ters for internatiorlal business dis- putes in the burgeoning Asia Pacific region. Now we can atinourice the next logical step: the creatiori of an umbrella group for these niultiply- ing centers.

Formed earlier this year, the Council of Asia Pacific ‘Coniniercial Dispute Kesolution Centres is ;in al- liance of about eight international ADR institutions located in that part of the world. The members include the American Arbitration Associa- tion’s AsidPacific (:enter for the Kes-

olution of International Business Disputes (San Francisco); Australian Disputes Centre (Sydney); British Columbia International Commercial Arbitration Centre (Vancouver); Hong Kong International Arbitra- tion Centre; and several others lo- cated in the United States,Japan and Korea.

Unlike its constituent members, the council will not provide ADR ser- vices to disputants. Instead, it will provide an “informal network” for the exchange of information among its members and assist its members in their activities, according to a council brochure.

The council will also disseminate information about its members’ ser- vices to interested businesses, and “provide technical assistance” for commercial ADR conferences. I t will generally promote ADK in the Asia Pacific area as well, and “serve as a technical resource in support of en- actment of legislation or the adop- tion of international converitions” that further ADR in nations there.