La valeur juridique des ententes issues de la médiation familiale : présentation des mésententes doctrinales et jurisprudentielles

Interdisciplinary family mediation as carried on in Québec leads to the drafting of an agreement dealing with all facets of a couple’s separation. It covers the sharing of parental responsibilities (children custody), partaking in property and financial contributions (support), while favouring the continuity of a functional parental relationship. While the government promotes access to mediation in the case of spouses with children, the legal effects of agreements issuing from family mediation are uncertain and give rise to numerous doctrinal and jurisprudential controverses. The authors first begin by presenting family mediation as it was implemented in Québec. They then demonstrate on the basis of jurisprudential and doctrinal analyses of the legal value of agreements issuing from family mediation, that the law falls short of adapting itself to this means of conflict resolution. In the end, there results uncertainty and disagreement on the legal effects of agreements resulting from such proceedings.