The mediation procedure is considered the most effective method of settling business conflicts in the system of alternative ways of dispute resolution through the prism of fundamental principles. The article reveals the advantages of settling cross-border economic disputes through mediation, including out-of-court procedures. The article examines doctrinal approaches to the mediation procedure, analyses the main problems of its unpopularity in the country and suggests ways to improve it and popularize it in Russian society through amendments to the mediation legislation, such as the legislative establishment of the term “mediation” and a uniform approach to the mediation procedure itself, including the requirements to the mediator’s identity and responsibility, as well as the exclusion from the legislation of the possibility of conducting mediation on a non-professional basis. The author pays special attention to the role of the judicial community in the development of mediation in the settlement of disputes in court.