Thesis

Mediation advocacy in UK environmentally related planning disputes : professional judgment and emotional intelligence among legal practitioners

Downloadable Content

Download PDF
Creator
Rights statement
Awarding institution
  • University of Strathclyde
Date of award
  • 2026
Thesis identifier
  • T18118
Person Identifier (Local)
  • 202382347
Qualification Level
Qualification Name
Department, School or Faculty
Abstract
  • This thesis advances a socio-legal account of Emotional Intelligence (EI) as a constitutive dimension of legal advocacy within mediation in environmentally related planning disputes in the United Kingdom. Although mediation has been promoted as a means of addressing the limitations of adversarial litigation in planning and environmental governance, its role within public law remains unevenly embedded and ethically contested. Existing scholarship has focused primarily on questions of institutional design, participation and procedural legitimacy, while paying limited attention to the emotional and relational work undertaken by lawyers representing clients in mediation. This thesis addresses that gap by examining how EI is understood, enacted and constrained within the professional role of mediation advocacy. The study adopts a critical realist and pragmatic framework. It employs a sequential mixed methods research design comprising four empirical phases. These include a national survey of legal professionals, qualitative interviews examining engagement with alternative dispute resolution, in-depth interviews focused specifically on EI in mediation advocacy, and a triangulation survey assessing the wider resonance of the qualitative findings. This design enables an integrated analysis of structural contexts, professional norms and lived legal practice. The findings demonstrate that EI operates not as a personal disposition or optional interpersonal skill, but as a form of relational legal judgement structuring mediation advocacy practice. Lawyers draw on emotional awareness, empathy, emotional regulation and reflexivity when preparing clients, managing stakeholder relationships and navigating the procedural and ethical uncertainties of mediation in public interest disputes. However, the capacity to enact emotionally intelligent advocacy is shaped and frequently constrained by adversarial professional culture, procedural fragility, power asymmetries and limited formal recognition within legal training and professional standards. The thesis concludes that emotionally intelligent mediation advocacy strengthens constitutional legitimacy when exercised within accountable institutional structures, yet also exposes the risks of relocating public law scrutiny into negotiated spaces if relational judgement operates without structural oversight. It therefore argues that affective reasoning should be recognised as a form of professional legal judgement within mediation advocacy, while remaining embedded within institutional frameworks that preserve public law accountability.
Advisor / supervisor
  • Agapiou, Andrew
  • Ferguson, Neil S.
Resource Type
DOI

Relations

Items

Thumbnail Title Date Uploaded Visibility Actions
file details PDF of thesis T18118 2026-09-23 Public Download