| GyanCentral - The hub for engineering and law students - IIT-JEE, AIEEE, BITSAT, CLAT, AILET - 2012: NLIU Bhopal organizes International Mediation Competition Oct 19th 2012, 03:58 | GyanCentral - The hub for engineering and law students - IIT-JEE, AIEEE, BITSAT, CLAT, AILET - 2012 | | The source for all engineering and legal education news in India | | | NLIU Bhopal organizes International Mediation Competition Oct 19th 2012, 03:53 Mediation, inarguably, is the future of commercial legal disputes all over the world. Corporations prefer mediation not only because of their feasibility but also because it takes lesser time. At a time when the whole legal corporate era is standing at a threshold of change, National Law Institute University, Bhopal is organizing the 2nd International NLIU-INADR Mediation Competition from 12th October to 14th October. The recent shift that the world has seen is from a tedious, long and financially burdening process of litigation in courts to a smoother, quicker and financially reasonable process of mediation. Corporations no longer prefer the "all or nothing" litigation proceedings but instead go for mediations sessions that tend to create a "win-win" situation for both the parties. Keeping in mind the recent trends, NLIU has taken a huge step towards promoting and facilitating the cause of mediation through its international competition. The competition that is being organized at a huge scale is seeing participation from 32 team, including teams from South-East Asia and United States. This competition is a one of its kind that no other law school in the country organizes. The initiation ceremony was done today where chief guests were Mr. Thomas Valenti (Secretary, INADR), Mr. H. Case Ellis (President, INADR and a renowned arbitrator) along with Ms. Megan Sweeney (Administrator, INADR). The auspicious lamp was lit by the chief guests and Prof. S.S. Singh (Director, NLIU). Later, Mr. S.S. Singh went on to explain the importance of mediation in India and how is it evolving in our country. He also explained that how mediation has, since long, been incorporated in the Indian culture. Mr. Thomas was grateful to NLIU for organizing such a successful event and also showed interest in coming back again next year. Mr. Ellis, who is also a renowned arbitrator and a mediator explained to the students the technicalities and advantages of mediation. He used an incident from his own life to explain how mediation brings out the better half in you. He was also of the view that its time that lawyers should stop this blood war between them and also emphasized on the fact that lawyers should become conflict resolvers and not conflict creators. He also used an example from his own life to explain to students how mediation brings outside the better part of a person. Mr. S. Surya Prakash, faculty-in charge, ADRC also announced the setting up of a mediation center at NLIU that would encourage students to take up mediation as their career choices. Later, Prateek Mishra, the man behind this competition, who also happens to be the convener of Alternate Dispute Resolution Cell of NLIU, praised INADR and thanked them for taking the initiative and placing their trust in NLIU by giving them an opportunity to organize this event with their collaboration. Later, a workshop was conducted by these esteemed guests who helped students in understanding the process of mediation. The workshop was extremely enthusiastic where students actively participated and a lot of intelligent questions were asked. The members of the INADR were also elated to see the overwhelming response from the students and were awed by the intelligence the Indian students had shown. The workshop began with the discussion on the opening statement in mediation and the key factors to be kept in mind in the initial few minutes. The primary suggestion given at this point was that the opening statement must be made in 4 minutes time and it can be given one-on-one or in collaboration. In the initial few minutes, the teams must try and get all information. They need to be a good listener, so as to understand the background of the teams. The mediation session should primarily focus on discussion and the teams must avoid entering into any argument. During the caucus, the advocate and client must work as a team. The client must avoid raising any new issue at this point of time. If the situation arises where the client becomes very stubborn, then it the duty of the advocate to first of all reach to a consensus with the client and get the reason of his client being so stubborn. The teams were also explained as to how to go about the situation when during the caucus, the teams comes up with a solution and they want the mediator to put forward the solution on behalf of the team. Finally the prize money was announced. Best team prize-30,000 INR Best advocate-client pair- 20,000 INR Best mediator- 10,000 INR The rounds were held on Saturday. Day 2 at the mediation session witnessed 32 teams competing with each other, in 16 parallel running court rooms, trying to reach to an amicable solution on the problem given to them. Wide varieties of interpretation and suggestions on one set of facts were seen, reflecting the intellect of the budding lawyers. The day also had short briefing session for the judges by the INADR members, who were given the tips for judging the mediation. The judges mainly included the Alumni of NLIU, practicing lawyers from various firms and reputed academicians. There were all together three prelim rounds held today. The three problem for the prelims round ranged from the issue of a matrimonial website to 'contract of service' and 'contract for service'. A participant from RGNLU, Patiala appreciated the problem and said that it had a good scope for bringing a dramatic effect to the mediation session. Similar view was expressed by a participant from NLU- Orissa. With several caucuses and cross- caucuses during the mediation session, few teams managed to reach to an agreement at the end of the session while other couldn't. The fixture for the rounds was also appreciated by one of the participant. A participant from Drake law school, while mediating a round, called the round as challenging but fun. Another participant from NLU Orissa, while mediating, appreciated the teams that were the parties to the session and was glad as both the teams worked on coming to a solution, which is the primary objective of a mediation session. The participants were thankful to the INADR members for organizing the workshop. They found the workshop to be of great help while competing in the rounds today. The team from NLSIU, however, raised an issue of the time cap of 1 hour 45 minutes of the session, which according to them is quite lengthy, especially in a situation when the teams are easily coming to a conclusion. This issue is worth appreciating. The final rounds of the NLIU- INADR international mediation competition started at around 2:45 p.m. with NUJS Kolkata going against Amity Law School, Noida ; Mediators - ILS Pune & HNLU and GNLU vs. Drake University Law School ; Mediators - NLU Delhi & NUJS, in two parallel running court rooms. The prize for the best mediator went to NLU- Delhi. NUJS, Kolkata came out as the best client-counsel team. Prizes were also given to top 10 individual client counsel team. The top individual client counsel team was judged to be form the Drake Law School. The top 10 individual mediators were also honoured. The best mediator was awarded to Ritika Banerjee from HNLU, Raipur. The top 8 advocate client team was also honoured in the ceremony. The top advocate client team was from NUJS, Kolkata. The top 8 mediator teams were then honoured in the ceremony. The top mediator team has been adjudged from NLU-delhi. Overall, the event was highly appreciated by the teams as well as the INADR members. They extended their warm welcome for further collaborations in the field of mediation in NLIU. |  | | |  |  |
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