Mediation
University teams warm up for big ICC Mediation Competition
Business and law students from around the world are set to compete in the International Chamber of Commerce’s biggest educational event of the year, the ICC International Commercial Mediation Competition, in Paris on 7-12 February.
From Aarhus to Warsaw, 66 universities will take part in the 9th ICC Mediation Competition, an event that has grown enormously since its launch with just 10 teams in 2006. Of the 42 countries represented this year, Kenya, Bahrain, Trinidad and Tobago, and many more, are fielding universities for their first time.
Over five days of intense competition, students will put their international mediation skills to the test in a range of mock commercial disputes. All reflect real events, from the transfer of a sensitive international footballer, to the destruction of crops by a swarm of locusts. And just as in real life, participants will apply ICC’s latest Rules of Mediation, which replaced the ICC Amicable Dispute Resolution (ADR) Rules on 1 January 2014.
“ICC’s Mediation Competition gives students from around the world a chance to see how top mediators work in real cross-border disputes. We’re motivating a new generation of well-trained mediation users,” said Hannah Tuempel, Senior Counsel and Manager of ICC International Centre for ADR. Well-placed to organize such an event, this is the body that administers ICC’s Mediation Rules, and offers a range of dispute settlement services.
With many of the world’s leading commercial mediators helping set up the event and participating as volunteer judges and mediators, and each team comprising up to four members, participation is set to exceed 600.
One such volunteer is Geoff Sharp, commercial mediator at the New Zealand Bar, and member of Brick Court Chambers in London, who mediated the competition final in 2012, and now works throughout the Asia Pacific region and the Middle East. Mr Sharp said: “This marvellous competition has evolved into the most important forum for the global conversation between practising commercial mediators from all around the world – who gather in Paris each year to act as mediators and judges.”
Also part of the 2014 ICC Mediation Week, the first International Mediation Round Table will be held on 6 February, the day before the competition kicks off. This roundtable provides a unique forum for mediation practitioners and ADR academics taking part in the ICC Mediation Competition to exchange best practices and new techniques.
ICC Mediation Week is just one of many events ICC is holding in the field of mediation in 2014. These include a wide-ranging series of regional events to launch the new ICC Mediation Rules all over the world, following their initial launch in Paris in December 2013. More information on dates and places will be available shortly.
For more information visit ICC Mediation Week
Learn about ICC Mediation Rules
