at Russian
Institute
of Modern
Arbitration
at Russian
Institute
of Modern
Arbitration
Moscow FIAMC pre-moot organized by Arbitration Center at Institute of Modern Arbitration together with international law firm Debevoise&Plimpton took place on February 9-10, 2018.
This year, 7 teams from all around the world participated in the pre-moot: Ghoete-University (Germany), University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), Belarus State University (Belarus), Peking University School of Transnational Law (China), Lomonosov Moscow State University (Russia), National Research Center Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia) and Russian State University of Justice (Saint Petersburg, Russia).
On February 9 (the day before the oral rounds), students and arbitrators were invited to attend a mini-conference devoted to the contested issues of this year’s case concerning the seizure of Portuguese and British vessels by Spain. During the conference, Diego Brian Gosis (Partner GST LLP, Miami) addressed the nationality requirements of foreign investors in investment arbitration. Veronica Sandler (Professor University of Buenos Aires) and Ilia Rachkov (Partner NSP, Moscow) analysed the issues of jurisdiction ratione materiae and ratione temporis respectively. Nikita Kondrashov (Associate Luther, Hamburg) drew attention to the evidentiary privileges in investment treaty cases, while Elena Burova (Specialist Arbitration Center) analysed the recent trends in TPF in investment arbitration.
On February 10, during the entire day teams participated in oral rounds. 30 practicing lawyers from the leading law firms (Baker Botts, Freshfields, Dentons, Norton Rose Fulbright, White & Case, Dechert, Herbert Smith Freehills, Latham & Watkins, Debevoise & Plimpton, Beiten Burkhardt, Goltsblat BLP, Clifford Chance, Lex Navicus Concordia, EPAM, Ivanyan & Partners, MZS) served as extremely tough arbitrators asking challenging questions that students were forced to answer with all their intelligence and advocacy.
As a result of the preliminary rounds, the team of University of Ljubljana faced the team of Ghoete-University in the finals. Veronica Sandler, Ilia Rachkov and Diego Brian Gosis presiding had a hard time deciding which team deserved a winning prize. In a remarkably close and tense round University of Ljubljana was unanimously recognized as a winner. Best advocate award was given to Damen Tursic (University of Ljubljana).
