International Arbitration Moot in Beijing

We would like to post more often, but we often have difficulty accessing Blogger.

After Marilyn and I traveled to Shanghai with a moot court team as reported in our last post, I was asked to help with an international commercial law arbitration moot.  This moot was also held in English, otherwise I would have been useless.  The team needed a faculty adviser to accompany them to Beijing, and I was fortunate to be that person.  I spent an enjoyable week in Beijing with eight students learning much.  Four of the students participated in the arbitration presentations, two teams of two, and four students were researchers with one of those being our treasurer and administrator. Unfortunately, Marilyn needed to stay in Nanjing to teach her classes.

The competition, except for the championship round, was held at the building that houses the national Chinese arbitration association.  This competition was the Chinese preliminary round to the the world-wide Willem Vis international commercial arbitration moot competition. Teams from all over the world, including the United States, compete in this competition.  The final world-wide competition is held in Vienna, Austria, and there is also an Asian competition held in Hong Kong.  The winner of the Beijing competition will go to Vienna to compete and the second place team will go to Hong Kong to compete. We will not be going to Vienna or Hong Kong.

The arbitration panels were mostly Chinese arbitrators and attorneys with a few arbitrators from other countries.  The chairman of the panel that judged the final round was a professor from Sweden. 

Arbitration is becoming a more popular form of dispute resolution and I expect international commercial arbitration will become increasing popular and competent arbitrators and attorneys will also be in greater demand.  China is determined to be a world player in this field and is committed to constant improvement with a goal of being a venue of choice for international commercial arbitration.  

The arbitration building in Beijing where all but the final round was held.

Our team with one of the arbitration panel members who is from Hong Kong.

Mental work is of course hard work requiring adequate nourishment and in Beijing we found what was needed to keep up our strength.  I was very fortunate to have these students as guides.  We went to restaurants that were wonderful and that I doubt many tourists would ever find.