Ugochinyelu C. N. Anidi

Senior Fellow – Nigeria

Ugochinyelu C. N. Anidi, Ph.D. is an established mediator and lecturer-in-law at the University of Nigeria, where she specializes in family law and alternative dispute resolution.

About Ugochinyelu C. N. Anidi, Ph.D.

Ugochinyelu C. N. Anidi, Ph.D. is an established mediator and lecturer-in-law at the University of Nigeria, where she specializes in family law and alternative dispute resolution. Dr. Anidi has been teaching family law at the undergraduate level since 2011 and has served as a volunteer family mediator at the Citizens’ Mediation Centre at the Ministry of Justice of Enugu State, Nigeria since 2010. She also holds a LL.M. in Comparative International Dispute Resolution from Queen Mary University.

Dr. Anidi has completed several family mediation and ADR programs including the Advanced Divorce Mediation Program at the New York Peace Institute and the Mediating Disputes Course at Harvard University’s Program on Negotiation (PON). She also recently concluded her Ph.D. at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, in divorce mediation. Her research examines the application of mandatory divorce mediation and the dissolution of both customary and statutory law marriages in Nigeria through the use of government funded, community-based mediation organizations.

Dr. Anidi is a member of the Chartered Institute of Mediators and Conciliators of Nigeria (ICMC) and a mediator on the panel of neutrals at the Enugu State Multi-door Courthouse. She is currently working to establish a clinical mediation course at the University of Nigeria, and hopes to support the continued development of ADR institutions such as the multi-door courthouses and citizens’ mediation centers by providing staff training and improved instruction. Through promoting the availability of mediation services throughout Nigeria, Dr. Anidi hopes to make dispute resolution accessible to indigent members of local communities.

Mediation Practice

Dr. Anidi’s mediation practice commenced in 2010 when she served as a volunteer mediator at the Citizens’ Rights and Mediation Centre at the Ministry of Justice in Enugu State, Nigeria. In 2018, she joined the panel of neutrals at the Enugu State Multi-Door Courthouse as a mediator. Her mediation practice focuses primarily on family disputes such as child custody, spousal maintenance, and division of matrimonial assets cases. She also handles other civil disputes in the areas of commercial litigation (ex: breach of contract) and landlord and tenant.

ADR Achievements and Training

2019 Weinstein JAMS International Fellow
Trained over 50 magistrates in alternative dispute resolution at the Judicial Conference in Zambia, 2019
International Mediation Conference, JAMS USA and Strathmore University, Nairobi, Kenya, 2019
African Clinical Legal Education Colloquium, Network for University Aid Institutions (NULAI), Nigeria, 2018
Advanced Divorce Mediation Training, New York Peace Institute, USA, 2015
“Mediation Disputes” (one-week intensive course on mediation practice and theory), Harvard University’s Program on Negotiation (PON), USA, 2013
“Alternative Dispute Resolution and Restorative Justice” (one-week intensive course on the use of ADR methods in courts), Dispute Settlement House, Dubai, 2012
“Conflict Analysis” (intensive course on the fundamentals of conflict analysis), Institute of Peace, USA, 2012
“Educating for the 21st Century” (one-week intensive course on peace education), United Nations Mandated University of Peace, Costa Rica, 2012
“Alternative Dispute Resolution Method and Training of Trainers”, Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators of Nigeria (ICMC), 2011, 2012
“Advanced Study of Training in Dispute Resolution for the American Court System”, Tulane University School of Law (USA) and the Institut fur Anwaltsrecht der Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin, Germany, 2010
“Multi-Party Negotiation and Mediation Focusing on Self-Awareness, The Intellectual Framework of Negotiation, and Mediation and Skill Acquisition”, Lukasz Rozdeiczer and the School of International Arbitration, Queen Mary University of London, UK, 2009
Research in the field of ADR for the Institute’s journal and monthly newsletter (Intern/Student/Researcher), Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb), UK, 2010

ADR Teaching and Mentoring

Certified trainer with the Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators of Nigeria (ICMC)
Teaches alternative dispute resolution as part of the Introduction to the Nigerian Legal System course to 300+ undergraduates

Publications and Education

Publications and Presentations

Anidi, U. (2021), For Better For Worse, Till I Change My Mind: Reviewing Section 15(2)(f) of the Matrimonial Causes Act, International Journal of Innovative Legal and Political Studies, 9(2), 88.
Anidi, U. (2021), Integrating Clinical Mediation Instruction into the Nigerian Legal Education Curriculum. Paper presented at GAJE/ICLE/ACCLE World Online Conference on Clinical Legal Education, Northumbria University, United Kingdom.
Anidi, U. (2021), The Institutionalization of Mediation in Nigeria: Neocolonialism at its Best? Paper presented at the Justice for Global Development Conference, Faculty of Law, University of Nigeria.
Doctoral Dissertation: Anidi, U. C. N. (2020), Towards the institutionalization of divorce mediation in Nigeria: A case study of Enugu State, Faculty of Law, Department of Private Law, University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Anidi, Ugochinyelu, “Toward the Establishment of Clinical Mediation Courses for Nigerian Universities,” University of Benin Law Journal, Vol. 19, No. 2 (2019), 102-121.
Anidi, Ugochinyelu C. N., “Is the Mediator a Therapist? A Critique of the Role of the Mediator in Bush and Folger’s Transformative Model of Mediation.” Law and Policy Review, Vol. 4 (2012), 37-52.

Educational Qualifications

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Divorce Mediation from the University of Cape Town, South Africa (2020)
Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Comparative International Dispute Resolution from Queen Mary University of London (2010)
Barrister at Law (BL), Nigerian Law School, Abuja, Nigeria (2008)
Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of Nigeria (2007)