LOCAL ARBITRATION MOOT COMPETITION 2017 PROCEDURAL RULES TITLE I General Rules PART I Organization and structure Art. 1 The Local Arbitration Competition (hereinafter LAMC ) is a team Moot Court Competition based on a fictitious case and promoted by ELSA Bologna. Art. 2 ELSA Bologna s Board of Directors (hereinafter Board of Directors ) is entitled to appoint a LAMC Executive Board; this board shall be the head of the organisation of the LAMC and will be responsible overall to the Board of Directors for its work. Art. 3 1. These Rules, adopted by an absolute majority of the Board of Directors and in line with the National Moot Court Competition Rules approved by ELSA Italy, shall provide the standard regulations for the LAMC. 2. The LAMC Executive Board is the only entitled to interpret the existing rules as well as issue additional rules. 3. Any possible modification to these Rules will be promptly notified to every participating Team and will be applicable immediately. Art. 4 The Board of Directors and the Executive Board will be supported by an Arbitration Panel for defining the fictitious case and examining the written submissions, as well as for the purposes of the evaluation of the hearings. The Arbitration Panel shall consist of legal practitioners and experts who are willing to make their legal and technical expertise available to the participants and organisers of the LAMC. Art. 5 The LAMC shall be carried out in four successive phases: a) Drafting by each registered Team of one Written Submission on behalf of the Claimant and one Written Submission on behalf of the Respondent (two separate written submissions in total). The Scientific Committee will examine and evaluate all of the 1
written submissions and award points to each Written Submission. b) Holding of the preliminary knock-out round of hearings before the Arbitration Panel, at the end of which points will be awarded to each Team. c) Holding of the semi-final hearings before the Arbitration Panel, at the end of which points will be awarded to each Team. d) Holding of the final (hearing), which will be between the two Teams which have obtained the most points (on the basis of the total amount of the points scored in the three previous phases). Art. 6 The competition will be held entirely in the English language. Art. 7 ELSA Bologna will define a timeline for the LAMC which will be binding. PART II: Teams Art. 8 1. Only law students who are currently enrolled in a Juris Doctor degree program are eligible to take part in the LAMC. Furthermore, they are required to be Members of ELSA Bologna or one of the partnered ELSA local groups. 2. Each team shall consist of a minimum of 2 and up to a maximum of 4 participants and they must be enrolled in the same university. Students being on exchange from another country are eligible to participate under the host university. Art. 9 LAMC Executive Board members are not allowed to register for the purpose of taking part in the Competition. Art. 10 1. Each team shall register by submitting the registration form available on the website www.elsabologna.org. The form must be submitted within the deadline indicated by the Executive Board. 2. Within 48 hours from the submission, the Executive Board will provide each team with the corresponding team number, which will be used in place of any information or details regarding the registered teams and their members. Art. 11 2
1. The participation fee is 40 Euro for each team that will submit the application prior to the deadline of September 25 th, 2017. For all those who will apply after the given deadline, but before the final closing of the term (October 2 nd, 2017), the fee will amount to 50 Euro for each team. 2. LAMC Executive Board is entitled to decide on the methods and terms of payment and will provide the relevant information by means of the informative material concerning the event. 3. Any team registering after the second deadline of October 2 nd will not be accepted as participant to the LAMC. 3. In case of withdrawal from the competition, the participation fee is non-refundable. A change in the team members is allowed, without prejudice to the total amount of team members, no later than 7 days prior to the start of the competition, and subject to duly notifying ELSA Bologna (or the Executive Board) of the change as soon as possible. TITLE II LAMC ROUNDS PART I: General Provisions Art. 12 1. Each team may request clarifications of the Scientific Committee in respect of any aspect of the case which is the subject matter of the competition. Such queries must be submitted by e-mail only to the Executive Board. 2. The Executive Board will promptly send back the clarifications requested to the teams. 3. Any communication between any member of the team and the Scientific Committee or the Arbitration Panel is strictly forbidden. Violation of this rule may result in disqualification of the entire team from the competition. Art. 13 The written submissions prepared by each team must be original and the contents must not be in whole in or part the work of persons outside the team. In the event of an ascertained violation of this rule, the Scientific Committee or the Arbitration Panel shall, at is sole discretion, take appropriate measures, including disqualification of the team. PART II: Draft and evaluation of the Skeleton Arguments Art. 14 1. Each team must draft two documents, so-called Skeleton Arguments, based on the fictitious case: One document on behalf of the Claimant, the second one on behalf of the 3
Defendant. 2. The Skeleton Arguments may be written in a free form, save for the provisions of art. 15 below. They will consist of the main arguments, which will be presented during the hearings on behalf of each side. 3. The documents must be sent by e-mail to the Executive Board, within the mandatory deadline. Art. 15 1. The written submissions must comply with the following formatting and page-limit instructions: (a) Paper size: A4; (b) Font style: Times New Roman; (c) Font Size: 12; (d) Margins: 2.5 cm; (e) Line spacing: 1.5; (f) Notes Size: 10; (g) Notes spacing: 1. 2. The documents must not exceed a maximum of five pages, including the references to legislation, case law and to the academic opinions. The team identification number must be indicated at the end of the document. 3. The written submissions must not contain any reference which may allow the members of the team to be identified; failure to comply with this rule will result in the disqualification of the team. Art. 16 1. After providing the corrections of form on base of the criteria indicated in art. 16, the Executive Board will submit the Skeleton Arguments to the Scientific Committee, without commenting on or evaluating them from a substantial point of view. 2. The Scientific Committee will evaluate the two written submissions prepared by each team and award points from 1 to 10. 3. The evaluation of the written submissions will take into account the quality of the research, knowledge of case law, logic, originality of arguments, clarity of structure and the style of presentation of the arguments. Particular significance will be attributed to the exhaustive nature of the argumentation and reasoning. Art. 17 Non-compliance with the provisions of art. 13, will result in the application of the following penalties: (a) Failure to use the correct font: Penalty of 0.5 points on the final score of the document. (b) Failure to use the correct font size: Penalty of 0.5 points on the final score of the document. 4
(c) Failure to use the correct Line Spacing: Penalty of 0.5 points on the final score of the document. (d) Failure to use correct Page margin: Penalty of 0.5 points on the final score of the document. (e) Exceeding the maximum number of pages of the document: Penalty of 1 point per page. Art. 18 The teams will be advised of the score for the written submissions, at the time they are advised of the score for the hearings. Art. 19 The role of the teams in the hearings (i.e. Claimant or Respondent) will be determined by means of a draw by the Executive Board. The same method shall be adopted for the purposes of determining the pairings in the semi-final hearings. PART III Preliminary Hearings Art. 20 The purpose of the hearing is for each team to counter the other side s argumentation, as well as the reasons adopted by it during the course of the hearing. Art. 21 1. At least two members of each team shall take the floor during the hearing. 2. Members of the Arbitration Panel may interrupt the orator at any time to ask questions. Only the orator who is interrupted is entitled to answer questions posed by the Arbitration Panel. Art. 22 1. The hearing begins with the opening statement of the party which acts as the Claimant. 2. The hearing continues with the statement of the party which acts as the Respondent 3. The hearing shall be concluded with the replies of the respective parties. Art. 23 1. Each team will be given a time of 20 minutes, including 5 minutes for the opening statement, 10 minutes for the main oral pleading and 5 minutes to present their rebuttal. The team is free to organize its time differently, but it must indicate how it wishes to allocate it before the beginning of the hearing, failing which the team will lose this right. 2. If the main statement is fully argued by a single team member, the replier must be a different person, failing which the team will lose the right to rebut. 3. The time used by the Arbitration Panel members to ask questions is counted as part of 5
the total time available to each team. 4. A timekeeper, who is appointed by the Executive Board, is responsible for periodically indicating the remaining time. Art. 24 1. Each member of the Arbitration Panel gives all the teams involved in every round a score from 1 to 10. 2. For the purposes of the evaluation of the hearing, particular consideration will be given to: the relevance and logic of the argumentation, the ability to counter the reasons of the opposing party, the style of oral presentation and the ability to answer the questions of the Arbitration Panel. 3. In addition, each member of the Arbitration Panel shall attribute a score from 1 to 10 to each participant for the purposes of appointing the Best Orator. Art. 25 The team members are required to comply with the rules of professional conduct of the legal profession. Art. 26 Access to the Semi-final Round will be granted only to the two teams that have achieved the highest score as Claimants and the two teams that have achieved the highest score as Respondents, based on the total of the evaluations (scores) received in respect of the Written Submission and the hearing. PART IV-Semi-final hearings Art. 27 1. In the semi-finals the teams shall act on behalf of the opposite side for whom they acted in the Preliminary Round. 2. The pairing of the teams shall be undertaken by means of a draw by the Executive Board. The terms of articles 20, 21, 22, 23 and 25 shall be applied to the semi-final hearings. Art. 28 1. Each member of the Arbitration Panel shall attribute to the teams taking part in each hearing a score from 1 to 10. 2. For the purposes of the hearings, particular consideration will be given to: the relevance and logic of the argumentation, the capacity to counter the other side s reasons, the style of oral presentation, the capacity to answer the questions posed by the Arbitration Panel, and most importantly the originality of the argumentations put forward. 6
Art. 29 The Executive Board will attribute to each team the representation of the party (Claimant or the Respondent, as the case may be) that the team did not represent in the preliminary round of hearings and will determine the pairings of the teams by means of a draw. Art. 30 Access to the final hearing will be given to the two teams that have been awarded the highest score, based on the total of the scores awarded for the Written Submission and the hearing. The teams respective roles (Claimant or the Respondent, as the case may be) in the Final Round will be determined by means of a draw. PART V - Holding of the Final and proclamation of the winners Art. 31 1. Prior to the Final, the Arbitration Panel will add an additional element to the case that the teams which take part in the Final will have to take into account; and each team s dealing with this element shall be the subject of evaluation. 2. No later than one hour prior to the beginning of the Final hearing, the finalist teams must submit to the Arbitration Panel a Written Submission, including the argumentations relating to the new element in defense of the party (Claimant or Respondent, as the case may be) which the teams respectively represent. The written submissions will have the same characteristics as provided by articles 14 and 15, save for the length, which will be no more than 2 pages. 3. The terms of articles 20, 21, 22, 23 and 25 shall be applied to the final hearing. Art. 32 The Arbitration Panel will proclaim the winning team on a majority basis, based on the criteria set out in article 16.3 with respect to the written submissions and article 24.2 with respect to the hearing. Art. 33 After the proclamation of the winners, prizes will be awarded to the winning team and the Best Orator. Art. 34 ELSA Bologna will issue a certificate of attendance to each participant. 7
TITLE III - FINAL PROVISIONS Art. 35 All participants are required to comply with these Rules, declaring to accept their provisions by the mere fact of their registration to the Competition. In case of serious breach of these Rules, ELSA Bologna or the LAMC Executive Board shall adopt any appropriate measure, including disqualification. Art. 36 1. Participants may submit to ELSA Bologna all matters relating to these Rules. The Executive Board has exclusive jurisdiction to adjudicate any dispute concerning the application and interpretation of the same. Its decisions are indisputable. 2. The evaluations and decisions of the Scientific Committee and the Arbitration Panel may equally not be challenged. 8