From Custom to Court: The Evolution of Mediation in European Legal Systems

ABSTRACT This article traces how European mediation has repeatedly rebalanced three variables—(1) the source of mediator authority, (2) the degree of institutionalization, and (3) the operative meaning of voluntariness—from antiquity to the present. Using three periods—Proto‐Mediation (c. 500 BCE–c. 1750), Classical Mediation (c. 1750–1976), and ADR‐Era Mediation (1976–present)—it shows how authority migrated from communal standing to professional or court‐adjacent credential; how informal practice became standardized procedure; and how voluntariness shifted from social expectation to legally managed participation (sometimes via “mandatory” gateways). The analysis explains contemporary court‐connected designs as the latest turn in a long European cycle and offers a historically grounded synthesis centred on the authority–institutionalization–voluntariness triad. How have authority, institutionalization, and voluntariness been historically reconfigured in European mediation, and what do these recurrent configurations imply for the design and legitimacy of contemporary court‐connected mediation?