Students of the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law came back from the 6^th annual International Commercial Mediation Moot Competition held in Paris from 4 to 9 February 2011 with an important recognition – the team of our Faculty received the special award as the best team participating for the first time at the Moot.

The members of the team which represented our Faculty were the third-year students Vanja Vujnović, Mina Srećković and Anja Tasić. They were coached by Marko Jovanović, lecturer at our Faculty, who was assisted by Uroš Živković, trainee at the Karanović-Nikolić Law Office. The team has also received help and support during the preparation for the Moot from Professor Vladimir Pavić, Milena Đorđević, lecturer and Mr. Petar Grozdanović, a professional mediator and lawyer at the Baklaja-Igrić-Mujezinović Law Office (in cooperation with Clyde & Co.)

The International Commercial Mediation Moot is organized by the Amicable Dispute Resolution department of the International Chamber of Commerce. The Moot takes place annually since 2006 in the month of February. The goal of the Moot is to help training law students to better meet the dispute resolution needs of today’s cross-cultural global market, to display the practical aspects of mediation to law students and to promote mediation as one of the methods of alternative settlement of international commercial disputes. This year more than 400 students participated at the Moot. They were gathered in 58 teams (out of that number 20 teams participated for the first time) from 27 countries from all over the world. It is important to emphasize that the participation at the Moot is subject to approval of the Organizing Committee. Namely, after the call for participants is closed, the Organizing Committee proceeds to the selection of the teams which are to be admitted to participate at the Moot. In making this decision, the Organizing Committee gives primacy to the teams which have previously participated at the Moot and to the teams representing the universities that have included mediation in their curricula. Furthermore, the Organizing Committee seeks to achieve a balanced regional representation. Therefore, the very participation at the Moot itself already represents a privilege and recognition to our Faculty.

The students try to solve hypothetical international commercial disputes by means of mediation. In order to do so, they engage in a real time mediation session during which they are assisted by a professional mediator. Their representation skills, problem-solving approach, the way of accommodating confidential information and the ability to handle different cultural approaches to mediation are assessed by a panel of two judges, who are also professionals in the field of mediation.

At the outset of each mediation session, the teams are required to submit a brief written plan setting forth their mediation strategy.At this year’s Moot our students faced the teams from Hamline University School of Law (USA), Gujarat National Law University (India), Washington College of Law (USA) and Humboldt University of Berlin (Germany). The winner of the 6^th Mediation Moot was the team from Fordham University School of Law.

The participation of our students at the Mediation Moot was financially supported by the International Financial Corporation.