International mediation competition winners announced

Parag Sayta and Vikas Mahendra Nanjundappa from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore were the runners-up, with the team from Brazil’s São Paulo Law School (DIREITO GV) placing third in the four-day competition.

Held on 15-19 February at ICC’s headquarters in Paris, this year’s competition attracted 20 teams from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. A similarly diverse mix of legal experts from 14 countries participated as mediators and judges of the event.

“This annual competition is a way for us to help educate tomorrow’s law professionals about the full range of dispute resolution mechanisms designed for international business disputes,” said Anne Marie Whitesell, Secretary General of the ICC International Court of Arbitration and head of ICC’s Dispute Resolution Services. “We are gratified by the success of this year’s event in attracting such high calibre participants from such a range of countries.”

Teams were divided into claimants and respondents in a mock up of a real mediation situation, with each team member required to act as either counsel or client.Competitors were required to apply ICC Amicable Dispute Resolution (ADR) Rules to solve problems devised by a special drafting committee of mediation experts.

On the final day of the competition, the ICC International Court of Arbitration hosted an Amicable Dispute Resolution Conference with experts from around the world addressing various aspects of mediation. That afternoon, the final round of the competition was filmed and will be used for a training DVD.

The ICC ADR Rules were introduced in 2001 and offer a structured way of seeking a mutually agreed solution to a dispute.