RULES OF THE COMPETITION 1. MEDIATION RULES OF PROCEDURE SCOPE AND APPLICATION Article 1 These Rules apply to moot mediation of international, cross-border, foreign-related and domestic disputes. Article 2 These Rules are formulated for resolving disputes arising between parties with or without contractual relations by means of Mediation. Article 3 Mediation can be carried out if an agreement to mediate exists between the parties according to the applicable law. Where no mediation agreement exists between the parties, one party requests mediation and the other party does not refuse, it shall be deemed that a mediation agreement exists. Notwithstanding the aforesaid, if the Arbitral Tribunal, before making an award, believes that there is still a chance of the parties reaching a successful concord, it may order that the matter be the subject of mediation. VARIATION OF RULES Article 4 When using these Rules, their provisions and stipulations can be varied if the parties are in unanimous agreement and the Convener of the Competition also agrees; however, the variation may not violate the law. MEDIATION DEFINITION AND PROCESS Article 5 In these Rules mediation means a dispute resolution process whereby an independent and impartial third party (the mediator) assists disputing parties to negotiate a resolution of their dispute. The Mediator will assist the Parties to attempt to resolve the dispute by helping them to: (a) systematically isolate the issues in dispute; (b) develop options for the resolution of these issues; (c) explore the usefulness of these options to meet their interests and needs. Article 6 The Mediator may meet with the Parties together or separately. Article 7 The Mediator will not: (a) give legal or other professional advice to any Party (but may explain the matter to the parties from the legal point of view and from the business point of view); or (b) impose a result on any Party; or (c) make decisions for any Party. Article 8 The Mediator shall conduct mediation independently and impartially in accordance with the stipulations of the contract (if any), these Rules, the applicable law and the principles of fairness and reasonableness. Article 9 Mediation can be conducted as a separate process or, if the parties agree, or if the Arbitral Tribunal directs, in combination with arbitration (conducted during arbitration proceedings or at their conclusion but before an award is made) or in combination with litigation (conducted during court proceedings) if the parties agree or if the court directs. APPOINTMENT OF MEDIATOR Article 10 One mediator shall be appointed for each mediation by the Convener of the Moot (ie, to be allocated by roster prior to the moot taking place). Article 11 In mediation with one mediator, the parties shall endeavor to reach agreement on the name of a sole mediator. For the purposes of competition the sole mediator will be appointed in accordance with Article 10 of these rules. Article 12 Judges and mediator(s) are not subject to the limitation of nationality. Any qualified person of any nationality is entitled to be appointed as a judge or mediator. Article 13 When accepting an appointment, the mediator shall ensure that he/she fulfills his/her duties and discloses any circumstances that may affect his/her independence and impartiality in the specific case. Article 14 If in the course of the mediation the Mediator becomes aware of any circumstances that might reasonably be considered to affect the Mediators capacity to act impartially, the Mediator must immediately inform the Parties of these circumstances. The Parties will then decide whether the mediation will continue with that Mediator or not. Article 15 The mediator shall endeavour to finish the mediation within the time period allocated for the competition and enforced by the Judges of the mediation. COMMENCEMENT OF MEDIATION PROCESS Article 16 Statement of Dispute Each party shall submit to the judges and the mediator a written statement of dispute describing general facts and nature of the dispute and the issues in dispute. The statement shall be no more than 2 pages long (12 point, Times New Roman, double spaced). The statement shall be copied to the other party and the Convener of the Moot. This representation plan must be submitted to the Moot Convener via email at ucl.ucam@gmail by 11:59pm on Saturday, 31st January, 2015 (PST). ATTENDANCE AND COOPERATION BY THE PARTIES Article 17 The parties must attend the mediation in person. They may be accompanied by their legal representatives. Of the students representing the particular team in the arbitration hearings, one will undertake the role of the client and the other will continue to act as legal counsel/attorney. Article 18 The Parties agree to cooperate in good faith with the Mediator and each other during the mediation. AUTHORITY TO SETTLE AND REPRESENTATION AT THE MEDIATION SESSION Article 19 The Parties agree to attend the mediation with authority to settle within any range that can reasonably be anticipated. Article 20 At the mediation each Party may be accompanied by one or more persons, including legally qualified persons, to assist and advise them. COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE MEDIATOR AND THE PARTIES Article 21 Any information disclosed to a Mediator in private is to be treated as confidential by the Mediator unless the Party making the disclosure states otherwise. CONFIDENTIALITY OF THE MEDIATION Article 22 Every person involved in the mediation: (a) will keep confidential all information arising out of or in connection with the mediation, including the fact and terms of any settlement, but not including the fact that the mediation is to take place or has taken place or where disclosure is required by law to implement or to enforce terms of settlement; and (b) acknowledges that all such information passing between the Parties and the Mediator, however communicated, is agreed to be without prejudice to any Partys legal position and may not be produced as evidence or disclosed to any judge, arbitrator or other decision-maker in any legal or other formal process, except where otherwise disclosable in law. Article 23 Where a Party privately discloses to the Mediator any information in confidence before, during or after the mediation, the Mediator will not disclose that information to any other Party or person without the consent of the Party disclosing it, unless required by law to make disclosure. Article 24 The Parties will not call the Mediator as a witness, nor require him to produce in evidence any records or notes relating to the mediation, in any litigation, arbitration or other formal process arising from or in connection with the Dispute and the mediation; nor will the Mediator act or agree to act as a witness, expert, arbitrator or consultant in any such process. Article 25 No verbatim recording or transcript of the mediation will be made in any form. TERMINATION OF THE MEDIATION Termination of Mediation Proceedings Article 26 Mediation proceedings shall be terminated when one of the following circumstances arises: The parties have reached a settlement and signed a settlement agreement; The mediator does not see any reasonable prospect of settlement and has declared in writing the termination of the mediation proceedings; All parties or one of the parties make a written request to the mediator to terminate the mediation proceedings; and, The term of mediation expires and the parties do not request an extension. SETTLEMENT OF THE DISPUTE Article 27 (1)If the mediation results in an agreement, the parties shall sign a settlement agreement (including therein a dispute resolution clause to the effect that if one party does not comply with the settlement agreement, the other party may initiate an arbitral process or a court process), and the mediator may help drafting the settlement agreement. (2)No terms of settlement reached at the mediation will be legally binding until set out in writing and signed by or on behalf of each of the Parties. EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY AND INDEMNITY Article 28 The Mediator will not be liable to a Party for any act or omission by the Mediator in the performance or purported performance of the Mediators obligations under this agreement unless the act or omission is fraudulent. Article 29 Each party indemnifies the Mediator against all claims by that Party or anyone claiming under or through that Party, arising out of or in any way referable to any act or omission by the Mediator in the performance or purported performance of the Mediators obligations under this agreement, unless the act or omission is fraudulent. Article 30 No statements or comments, whether written or oral, made or used by the Parties or their representatives or the Mediator within the mediation shall be relied upon to found or maintain any action for defamation, libel, slander or any related complaint, and this document may be pleaded as a bar to any such action. 2. ARBITRATION RULES Article 31 The Arbitral Panel will consist of 3 tribunal members, comprising a student arbitrator/mediator from a team not competing in the particular match and two arbitrators appointed by the competition organizers. Only the marks of the two dispute resolution practitioners appointed by the competition organizers will count. However, the student arbitrator will be assessed on his role as arbitrator and, subsequently, mediator. Article 32 The duration of the arbitration will be 1 hour with each side allowed 30 minutes to be divided between its two speakers. Article 33 For the arbitral proceedings, Teams will be required to submit two (2) memoranda, one for the Claimant and one for the Respondent. Each memorandum will be no more than 3,000 words in length. Memoranda should be double spaced on A4 sized paper and presented in Times font, 12 size. Footnotes will be part of the word count. The due date for these memoranda is Sunday, 25th January, 2015. Memoranda should be sent as an email attachment in Word format to the Convener of the Moot, Karim Ullah Sraw at the following email address before midnight on the due date: ucl.ucam@gmail The word limit of 3,000 words will be strictly enforced with penalties as follows: Less than 100 words over-length = 5 penalty marks More than 100 words over-length = 10 penalty marks More than 500 words over-length = 20 penalty marks These penalties apply to each memoranda received. That is, they apply to both Claimant and Respondent memoranda. Cover sheet required Each memoranda should have on its cover the team number and the side represented, ie, Claimant or Respondent. No indication of the name of the university should be found anywhere on each Memorandum. There is an automatic 20 point penalty for breach of this rule. Opposing Team Memoranda All teams will receive the memoranda of the teams they are scheduled to meet in the oral rounds one week prior to the competition, either by email or by posting the memoranda on the competition website. No revision allowed No memoranda may be revised for any purpose whatsoever once it has been submitted. Scoring of the Memoranda A panel selected by the Moot Convener will score the memoranda on the basis of the quality of the analysis, the persuasiveness of the legal argument, thoroughness of the research and the clarity of the writing. The panel will take an unfavourable view of arguments which are based on facts not found in the problem or the clarifications and which are not logical or necessary extensions of the given facts. The panel will be supplied with copies of the Memoranda, which have on the cover sheet only the teams individual moot numbers. Venue of the Competition The venue of the competition is University College Lahore, 1.8 km from Thokar Niaz Baig Chowk, Raiwind Road, Lahore, Pakistan. Oral Hearings Oral Hearings will be conducted at the University College Lahore during the dates of the competition. A moot will only proceed if 2 representatives from both teams are present. If both speakers for a team are not present by 15 minutes after the published start time of the moot, when the other team is all present, then. the Convener of the Moot may also consult with the present team as well as the mediator and organize a dummy team or mediator to conduct moot in place of the absent team. There is no restriction on the amount of coaching a team may receive in preparation for the oral hearings. No team members, friends or relatives of a team are permitted to attend hearings involving other teams against the team they may meet later during the General Rounds of the competition. Scouting is not allowed. For the Knockout Rounds members of the teams already eliminated are permitted to attend as part of the audience, given that the venues provide sufficient room to accommodate them. Teams competing in the Knockout Rounds still cannot scout other teams competing in the Knockout Rounds. Violation of this rule will disqualify a team from participating beyond the general rounds or in the final. Once the hearing has commenced, no assistance is to be given to the oralists by the coach, the other members of their team or any other person. Videotaping of any moot is not permitted except for the semi-finals and the grand final, except with the express permission of the Moot Convener. The organizers will make arrangements for video recordings of semi-finals and the Grand Finale and later those videos will be uploaded on the website for every one’s use. Copyright Once Memoranda have been submitted for consideration in the competition, copyright in those memoranda will vest in the University College Lahore. Mediator’s Responsibilities: Responsibilities to the Parties 2. Impartiality/Conflict of Interest The Mediator shall maintain impartiality towards all Parties. The Mediator shall disclose to the Parties any affiliations/interests which the Mediator may have or had with any Party and in such situation obtain the prior written consent of all the Parties before proceeding with the mediation. 3. Informed Consent (a) The Mediator shall explain to all Parties the nature of the mediation process, the procedures to be utilized and the role of the Mediator. (b) The Mediator shall ensure the Parties sign an Agreement to Mediate prior to the substantive negotiations between the Parties. A sample Agreement to Mediate is attached. (c) The Agreement(s) to Mediate shall include the responsibilities and obligations of the Mediator and the Parties. 4. Confidentiality (a) The Mediator shall keep confidential all information, arising out of or in connection with the mediation, unless compelled by law or public policy grounds. (b) Any information disclosed in confidence to the Mediator by one of the Parties shall not be disclosed to the other Party without prior permission. (c) Paragraphs 4(a) and 4(b) shall not apply in the event such information discloses an actual or potential threat to human life or safety. 5. Suspension or Termination of Mediation The Mediator shall inform the Parties of their right to withdraw from the mediation. If the Mediator believes that a party is unable or unwilling to participate effectively in the mediation process, the Mediator can suspend or terminate the mediation. 6. Insurance The Mediator shall consider whether it is appropriate to be covered by professional indemnity insurance and if so, shall ensure that he is adequately covered. Defining the Process 7. Independent Advice and Information In a mediation in which a Party is without legal representation or relevant expert opinion, the Mediator shall consider whether to encourage the Party to obtain legal advice or relevant expert opinion. 8. Fees The Mediator has a duty to define and describe in writing the fees for the mediation. The Mediator shall not charge contingent fees or base the fees upon the outcome of the mediation. Responsibilities to the Mediation Process and the Public 9. Competence The Mediator shall be competent and knowledgeable in the process of mediation. Relevant factors shall include training, specialist training and continuous education, having regard to the relevant standards and/or accreditation scheme to which the Mediator is accredited. For example, in the event the mediation relates to separation/divorce, the Mediator shall have attained the relevant specialist training and the appropriate accreditation. 10. Appointment Before accepting an appointment, the Mediator must be satisfied that he/she has time available to ensure that the mediation can proceed in an expeditious manner. 11. Advertising/promotion of the Mediators services The Mediator may promote his/her practice, but shall do so in a professional, truthful and dignified manner.
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 20:08:35 +0000
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