After five days of intense competition between 66 teams from 32 countries, the ICC International Commercial Mediation Competition finished yesterday in Paris. The South Texas College of Law (USA) came in first, and the Bar Ilan University (Israel) was the runner-up. In the semifinals both teams beat off their competitors: the University of New South Wales (Australia) and the FGV Sao Paulo Law School (Brazil). The four other teams which made it to the quarterfinals were: Bucerius Law School (Germany), Jagiellonian University (Poland), National University of Singapore (Singapore) and Hamline University School of Law (United States).
The ICC International Commercial Mediation Competition is the most prestigious international moot devoted exclusively to mediation. It tests the problem solving skills of students based on real cross-border commercial disputes. The Competition consists of two parts: written and oral advocacy. During three days of preliminary rounds, competitors apply ICC’s Amicable Dispute Resolution (ADR) Rules to solve business problems created by a special drafting working group of international mediation experts. The preliminary rounds were followed by the eight, quarter and semi-final rounds, as well as the final.
The aim of the competition is to train law and business students to improve their knowledge and skills how and when to efficiently use mediation. It gives students an opportunity to test their problem-solving skills in cases in which they take the role of client and counsel while some leading international commercial mediators participate to help the students work towards a good solution.
The final yesterday was mediated by Geoff Sharp, a regular contributor to kluwermediationblog.com (see Geoff Sharp’s recent post on the ICC Competition), and observed by over 250 people at the Maison du Barreau in Paris.
All together over 140 mock mediation sessions were featured during the entire Competition. See also more information on the past Competitions.
While there are some other successful mediation competitions, such as the ones organized by the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution or the UK’s Liverpool John Moores University’s School of Law, the ICC’s Competition is the most recognized and prestigious among them. There is no doubt that such competitions are excellent for promoting ADR among both students and practitioners. This has also been proved by successful arbitration moot competitions, such as the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot (the 19th annual competition takes place this year!), the Frankfurt Investment Arbitration Moot Court or the Foreign Direct Investment International Arbitration Moot.
Congratulations to the winners and all the participants!
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