The WCL’s Center on International Commercial Arbitration hosted two moot arbitration competitions in spring 2024. The competitions are developed by the Center’s Director Horacio A. Grigera Naon and Assistant Director Bjorn Arp. One of them was for Spanish-speaking law students, and the other for English-speaking LL.M. students. Both are student groups that typically have less opportunities to engage in practical skills training. The competitions thus fulfill an important educational function in a key area of international business law practice.
During the week from March 11 to 15, coinciding with the WCL’s spring break, the Center on International Commercial Arbitration hosted the eleventh, Spanish speaking Investment Moot Arbitration Competition. 120 students from eight countries (Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, and Spain) came to WCL to compete in a mock dispute between a foreign construction company and an imaginary country for the construction of a railway and port infrastructure that failed due to power struggles between various factions within that country’s government. The teams had to demonstrate an advanced level of knowledge in international investment law and arbitration. They had to present their arguments skillfully in front of three-member tribunals. The tribunals consisted of experienced practitioners from all major firms in Washington, D.C. dedicated to investment arbitration. Just to mention a few, the close to 30 arbitrators came from Freshfields, GST, Miller Chevalier, Baker Hostetler, Arnold & Porter, Baker McKenzie, ReedSmith, White & Case, as well as the primary forum for solving investment disputes, the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
The competition was opened with an expert panel discussion about the topic of complex infrastructure projects on Monday, March 11. Prof. Nigel Blackaby, partner at Freshfields, delivered a keynote address, and the panel included Melida Hodgson, partner at Arnold & Porter in New York and President-elect of the American Society of International Law, as well as Hernando Otero, independent arbitrator and mediator. The tribunal of the final round consisted of Freshfields partner Caroline Richard, Associate Rosario Galardi, and Clark Hill member Ignacio Torterola. They all brought a wealth of experience to the panel and maintained a stimulating exchange of arguments with the two best teams at the final round on Friday, March 15.
Following the final round, the award for the best team went to the National University of Colombia, and the recognition of the finalist team to the University of Buenos Aires. The best oralist award was given to José Arturo Choriego, and the finalists were: María Celina Ubadell, Benjamin Reydet, Laura Medina, Bautista Sartori, and Francisco Alvarado. The awards for the best briefs went to the Faculty of Law, Externado University of Colombia (brief for plaintiff) and the Faculty of Law, Catholic University of Chile (brief for defendant). Finalists were the Faculty of Law, Francisco Marroquín University (brief for plaintiff), Faculty of Law, Catholic University of Peru (brief for plaintiff), Faculty of Law, Catholic University of Peru (brief for defendant), and the Faculty of Law, University of Piura in Peru (brief for defendant).
This Competition is co-organized with the Externado University in Bogota (Colombia) and takes place alternatively in Washington and Bogota. This edition of the Competition had the generous financial support of the global law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP.
Between April 4 and 6, 2024, took place the LL.M. Moot Arbitration Competition, which this year followed a case that analyzed cutting-edge issues arising from the transition from the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) investment protection regime. After NAFTA’s derogation effective July 2020, the USMCA provided a three-year “legacy investment” protection regime, by which NAFTA’s substantive and procedural protections would continue to apply. However, there continue to remain open questions with this transitory regime such as whether new treaty breaches would continue to fall under the legacy investment regime or whether they would fall under USMCA. At this competition, eleven teams from nine different U.S. Law Schools (Northwestern, Boston, Pittsburgh, Missouri, Georgia, American, George Washington, Cardozo, and Ohio State), making up a group of more than 50 students, competed in two general and three eliminatory rounds for the prize of best team and best oralist. The tribunal of the final round consisted of independent arbitrator Lindsay Gastrell, and Hughes Hubbard & Reed partners John Townsend and Gaela Gehring Flores.
The trophy for the winning team went to the University of Pittsburgh, followed as runner-up by the University of Georgia. Best oralist was Stefano Avogaro, followed as runner-ups by Amila Pivic, Anastasiia Pauchak, and Zahid Omarzai.
These moot competitions are an extraordinarily effective way to learn many of the fundamental practical skills required by an effective advocate. Many practitioners who today specialize in arbitration at the rank of associate or partner in international law firms started out in these competitions. WCL’s Center on International Commercial Arbitration continues committed to offer the best moot arbitration experiences and is looking forward to next year’s competitions.
For more information on the Center’s moot competitions, see here.