Divine intervention

When not actually beating people up in court, all good litigators of course chew on raw meat and keep their minds sharp by referring to the ancient Chinese text, The Art of War, by Sun Tzu.

And now - in what is surely the most esoteric legal publication of all time - mediators and arbitrators have their own equivalent.

Solicitor Derek Roebuck has just published a translation and analysis of The Charitable Arbitrator, a 17th century text on how to mediate and arbitrate in Louis XIV's France.

The author of the original was a priest, Alexandre de la Roche, and while Mr Roebuck insists that this work can teach us lessons today, he does concede that some tactics are no longer in the mediator's armoury: 'It would be unwise to rely on parties in dispute being persuaded by threats of divine intervention in their present lives or sanctions in eternity.'