Runners-up in inaugural ICC competition in Hong Kong

NUS Law emerged runners-up in the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) International Commercial Mediation Competition held in Hong Kong from 12 to 15 October 2018.

Organised by Hong Kong’s Department of Justice and ICC, this was the first ICC competition to take place in Hong Kong that focuses on international commercial mediation.

The NUS Law team, consisting of undergraduate students Leanne Cheng ’19, Mark Lim ’19, Tan Su ’20 and Samuel Teo ’21 and coached by Professor Joel Lee and Marcus Lim ’12, competed against 16 teams from China, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia and Singapore.

Over the four days, the teams worked in client-lawyer pairs assisted by a professional ICC mediator, to try and resolve commercial disputes.

From relatively straightforward disagreements between siblings to high-value construction contracts between state-owned companies, the types of conflicts the teams had to try and resolve illustrated the diversity and complexity of international commercial disputes.

Teams were also tasked to renegotiate agreements involving fast-food franchising, mobile-phone manufacturing and software licensing.

The NUS Law team went up against the team from City University of Hong Kong in the final, narrowly losing the round in a 3-2 split decision.

Nevertheless, it was a strong performance from the NUS Law team. “The team would like to thank Covenant Chambers LLC for their generous support, and also their amazing coaches for the many words of wisdom and help. The team is especially grateful to Marcus for accompanying the team to Hong Kong and providing guidance and friendship at every stage of this journey,” said Mark Lim.