International Dispute Settlement
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Conciliation has been defined as:
Amethod for the settlement of international disputes of any nature according to which a Commission set up by the Parties, either on a permanent basis or an ad hoc basis to deal with a dispute, proceeds to the impartial examination of the dispute and attempts to define the terms of a settlement susceptible of being accepted by them or of affording the Parties, with a view to its settlement, such aid as they may have requested.
The eclectic character of the method is at once apparent. If mediation is essentially an extension of negotiation, conciliation puts third-party intervention on a formal legal footing and institutionalises it in away comparable, but not identical, to inquiry or arbitration. For the fact-finding exercise that is the essence of inquiry may or may not be an important element in conciliation, while the search for terms ‘susceptible of being accepted’ by the parties, but not binding on them, provides a sharp contrast with arbitration and a reminder of the link between conciliation and mediation.
The emergence of conciliation
The first treaty to provide for conciliation was concluded between Sweden and Chile in 1920. Its emphasis, however, was on inquiry and the only reference to conciliation is in an article putting it forward as an optional procedure. A number of treaties at about this time dealt with conciliation in a similar way, though in others it was given a more prominent place. In 1921, for example, conciliation and arbitration were laid down as alternative means of settlement in a treaty between Germany and Switzerland.
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