MEDIATION IN MEDICAL LEGAL RELATIONS: ETHICAL AND LEGAL FOUNDATIONS FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION

The relevance of the study is determined by the persistent increase in conflicts in the healthcare sector and the limited capacity of traditional judicial mechanisms to respond effectively to their ethically and psychologically complex nature.Medical legal relations combine legal, moral, and social dimensions, which results in increased patient vulnerability, asymmetry between the parties, and the significant role of trust in the process of providing medical care.Under these conditions, the search for alternative methods of conflict resolution capable of ensuring not only a formal legal settlement of the dispute but also the restoration of disrupted relationships becomes particularly important.The purpose of the article is to provide a comprehensive examination of the ethical and legal nature of mediation in medical legal relations and to determine its potential as an instrument for the humanisation of mechanisms for the protection of human rights in the healthcare sector.To achieve this aim, systemic, formal-legal, comparative legal, and logical-legal methods of analysis were employed, which made it possible to consider mediation through the prism of the combination of legal regulation and the principles of medical ethics.In the course of the study, the specific characteristics of medical conflicts were examined, and the particularities of the application of mediation were identified with due regard to medical confidentiality, patient autonomy, and the professional responsibility of healthcare professionals.It is demonstrated that mediation in the healthcare sector performs not only a procedural but also a restorative function, contributing to a reduction in conflict and to the formation of constructive dialogue between the parties.The main advantages of mediation in comparison with judicial proceedings are identified, and the factors constraining its implementation in medical practice are revealed, in particular regulatory uncertainty and the absence of specialised ethical and legal standards.Prospects for further research are associated with the development of models for the normative entrenchment of mediation in the healthcare sector and the formulation of practical recommendations for its application in medical legal relations.