Mediation
Universities selected to compete in most diverse ever ICC Mediation Competition
The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has revealed the 66 business and law schools selected to send teams of students to the 10th ICC International Commercial Mediation Competition to take place in 2015.
Featuring 34 countries, the list of participating universities is more diverse than in any previous edition of the Competition, and includes 18 universities entering for the first time.
Renowned among practitioners, academics, law firms and corporations for its valuable contribution to improving cross-border business mediation practices worldwide, the ICC Mediation Competition has grown tremendously since its launch in 2006. Running from 6- 11 February 2015 in Paris, the 10th edition will feature around 200 mock mediation sessions, as well as training programmes and social events for over 500 participants, set against a background of 10th anniversary celebrations.
Ronald S. Austin, Mediator, Lawyer (UK) and Partner at Clifford Chance leads the 2015 Competition rules drafting group, which is in charge of drafting the rules governing the conduct of the Competition and the evaluation of the students’ performance. He described the ICC Mediation Competition as “the world’s key mediation event for people of different generations and cultures to learn from and exchange with each other as equals.”
For Vishal Binod, NALSAR University of Law (India), one of more than 500 students in the 9th ICC International Commercial Mediation Competition, the event was: “Intense. Engaging. Life changing. It was an experience which changed the way I look at situations now.”
Each of the newly selected 66 universities will send a team of two to four students to the 2015 Competition, where they will test their mediation skills – and knowledge of the ICC Mediation Rules – in resolving a variety of mock international business disputes. Teams can be accompanied by up to two coaches. The event organizing committee has set an application deadline of 6 November 2014 to recruit more than 120 dispute resolution specialists who will act as mediators and evaluators in the mock sessions.
“Each year we receive more and more very high quality applications from universities wanting to compete, as well as dispute resolution professionals proposing their expertise. This broad interest has helped us make the tenth edition of the ICC Mediation Competition the most diverse ever – an exciting prospect!” said Sara Debenedetti, Project Manager at the ICC Centre for ADR, the body that oversees the application of ICC Mediation, Expertise, Dispute Boards and DOCDEX Rules.
“We are now looking forward to recruiting an equally diverse group of experienced and renowned professional mediators who will support us in making the Competition become, once again, one of the top events on the international mediation calendar,” she added.
Individual team members will be announced in late 2014, once ICC has checked applicants’ eligibility. With scheduling underway to determine which teams will compete against each other in the preliminary rounds, participants will soon receive details of the Competition problems, based on their role in each mock case before their preparations for the big event can begin.
