SCCA concludes 4th edition of the International Arabic Moot
Published Date: 23/05/2023
Names winners from among 88 universities from 20 countries
After eight months and several stages of competition, The SCCA International Arabic Moot has concluded its fourth edition. The Saudi Center for Commercial Arbitration (SCCA) puts on the competition in partnership with UNCITRAL and the Commercial Law Development Program (CLDP) at the U.S. Department of Commerce. The competition begins with the announcement of the moot case and proceeds through the submission of written memoranda, then oral hearings, and finally the crowning of the winners.
This year The SCCA International Arabic Moot attracted 780 participants, including students and academic supervisors, who formed 110 teams from law schools at 88 universities in 20 Arab and non-Arab countries: the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Kuwait, Morocco, Yemen, Tunisia, Oman, Palestine, Egypt, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Qatar, and Mauritania.
The competing teams argued a hypothetical commercial dispute between two alternative energy companies, one of which breached its obligations to supply solar panels for a commercial project the two companies had contracted to carry out. The UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) was the law governing the subject matter of the dispute.
Birzeit University (Palestine) won first place in the competition, followed by Alexandria University (Egypt), and then the Royal University for Women (Bahrain). In the category of Best Claimant Memorandum, Sultan Qaboos University (Oman) took first place, followed by Prince Sultan University (Saudi Arabia), and then the University of Bahrain. In the category of Best Respondent Memorandum, Al-Azhar University (Egypt) won the top award, followed by Alexandria University, and then Birzeit University.
The oral hearings in the competition ended last week, involving 174 hearings held virtually by 257 arbitrators from across the Arab world.
The SCCA International Arabic Moot closing ceremony took place at the SCCA headquarters in Riyadh, attended by SCCA Chairman Dr. Walid Bin Sulaiman Abanumay and SCCA CEO Dr. Hamid Bin Hassan Merah. Ms. Mays al-Aboussi, representing CLDP, and Mr. Andrew Willcocks, representing Jus Mundi, a knowledge partner of the competition, addressed the attendees remotely.
Commenting on this occasion, Dr. Abanumay said that investing in the arbitrators of the future is part of the SCCA’s overall strategy to advance the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) industry in the region through training and professional development in the field – a matter at the heart of its stewardship of future generations of students at faculties of law.
Dr. Abanumay added that The SCCA International Arabic Moot is a gateway to the future. It allows students to come into contact with top international experts with distinguished careers, and to draw on their guidance and experience, something the students will take with them into the labor market, employment opportunities and training, and international study.
For his part, Dr. Merah congratulated the winning universities and all the participating universities. He added that in commercial arbitration circles in the Arab world, The SCCA International Arabic Moot has become an awaited event and a destination for law students every year. It started small and limited in scope, with only 39 teams from 24 universities, all from Saudi Arabia. The competition has now spread to the Arab Maghreb in the west and to Malaysia in the east, with 20 Arab and non-Arab countries involved this year.
Dr. Merah added that the ultimate goal of The SCCA International Arabic Moot is to serve as a bridge that carries law students into the world of commercial arbitration, across a transition from academics to reality. In this way, he said, it will help stem the flow of arbitration cases out of Arab countries and give Arab arbitrators a greater presence in international forums and arbitration centers.