Revista da EMERJ - V. 22 - N.1 - Janeiro/Março - 2020

 R. EMERJ, Rio de Janeiro, v. 22, n. 1, p. 11 - 26, Janeiro-Março. 2020  16 provement in recent years in Italy: pending cases decreased from approximately 6 million in 2009 to 4.5 million in 2016, while the average length of proceedings slightly reduced as well. Although in recent years, the economic crisis and the rise of court fees make it impossible to establish whether litigation has decreased thanks to the sole improvement of mediation, we can find a clear signal of such process in the significant decrease (-16%) of new cases in those disputes that are subject to compulsory attempt of media- tion. The improvement of judicial statistics has allowed Italy to regain eleven positions in the international rankings for business friendliness 6 . Besides saving relationships (might they be affective or commercial) between the parties, money, and time, the Italian legislator, while working on the reform, wanted to ensure that the settlement agreement reached in mediation was directly en- forceable, tantamount to an arbitration award, and that the par- ties who refused to participate in the preliminary meeting with- out an acceptable reason might be sanctioned by the judge of the trial with damages or a doubled court fee. These goals asked not only for the promotion of mediation in general terms, but for a deeper and stronger reform of the use of mediation, which ended in making it compulsory in specific matters. THE SENSITIZATION OF LEGAL PROFESSIONALS: AN AMBIVALENT PROCESS The advocates of compulsory mediation are ready to admit that compelling mediation on a massive scale was a less than op- timal solution, but in the short-to-medium term it was the only option to jumpstart mediation in the Italian legal system. Inde- ed, the number of voluntary mediations increased massively too, and they now represent around 10% of the mediation procedu- res. What is particularly interesting, is that mediation conducted by judge’s order, which during the first year was at 1.7% of the 6 World bank Group (2016). Doing Business 2016. Measuring Regulatory Quality and Efficiency . Washington: The World Bank, available at http://www.doingbusiness.org/~/media/WBG/DoingBusiness/Docu- ments/Annual-Reports/English/DB16-Full-Report.pdf (accessed July 13 th , 2018).