Due to popular demand, ICC has announced dates for another round of its International Commercial Mediation Competition. The fourth edition of the competition will take place in Paris on 7-12 February 2009.

With a view towards training lawyers to better meet the dispute resolution needs of today’s cross-cultural market, the competition gives students an opportunity to test their problem-solving skills in a moot international mediation.

The competition accomodates a maximum entry of 40 law schools and is open to law schools from all over the world. Over 85 legal experts with a diverse range of expertise will participate as volunteer mediators and judges. 

The competition will consist of two parts; written and oral advocacy. During four days of preliminary rounds, competitors must apply ICC’s Amicable Dispute Resolution (ADR) Rules to solve problems devised by a special drafting committee of international mediation experts. Student teams are divided into requesting party and responding party in mock mediation sessions, where team members act out the role of counsel and client before a mediator and two judges.     

On the fifth day of the competition, quarter finals will take place in the morning and semi-finals in the afternoon. Eight universities will be selected to compete in the final. On the last day of the competition, the ICC International Court of Arbitration will host an Amicable Dispute Resolution Conference gathering experts from around the world to address various aspects of mediation. In the afternoon, students will participate in the final of the International Commercial Mediation Competition. The competition final will be filmed and used as a training DVD. Video footage of the final round of last year’s competition can be viewed at:  http://www.iccwbo.org/court/adr/id20734/index.html .

Combining competition, sharing of best practices, learning and networking, this one-of-a-kind event gives participants a unique opportunity to explore cultural differences in international commercial mediation and to enjoy numerous social activities. 

The registration fee is €500 per school and each team is responsible for its own expenses. Application packages will be mailed to interested universities on Friday, 4 October 2008, and will contain the competition rules and the ICC ADR Rules. The deadline for returning the application packages is 17 November 2008.

Please note that students are requested to arrive at ICC headquarters on 6 February 2009 in order to attend the orientation session and welcome cocktail.       

For more information, please contact:

Calliope Sudborough
Project Manager – Lawyer
4th ICC International Commercial Mediation Competition
ICC Dispute Resolution Services
ADR – Expertise – Dispute Boards
+33 (0) 1 49 53 30 52
Click here to email 

ICC ADR Services:
http://www.iccwbo.org/court/adr/