UNAIR NEWS – UNAIR Chapter International Law Students Association (ILSA) and Asian Law Students Association (ALSA) LC UNAIR made another proud achievement in the international arena. This time, the ILSA Chapter UNAIR & ALSA LC UNAIR representative team reached 4th place in the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Arbitration Moot 2020 last November. This representative team consists of 4 people, Thesalonica Shinta P.N.K.F (2017), Alex Wijaya (2019), Axel Cross (2019), dan Laila Maghfira Andaretna (2019).
To get the story of their achievements, the editorial team interviewed Axel Cross as a team representative on Monday night, November 30, 2029. Axel said that this FDI Arbitration is a little different from the usual International Moot Court Competition (IMCC) like Philip C. Jessup because the nature of FDI Arbitration competition is arbitration (civil dispute settlement outside the legal court), while IMCC is a moot court competition. Axel said that there were 77 teams from various parts of the world competing in the 2020 FDI Arbitration and there were 5 teams from Indonesia.
“In arbitration, it is more relaxed like a warm and substatial academic discussion because we basically want to convince judges about the content of our pleading. In fact, there are moments where we can laugh with the opposing team and the judges,” said the student.
Axel explained that the case discussed in this FDI Arbitration focuses on the discipline of international private law which has its origins in international public law, more specifically related to investment law. The student of class 2019 also told about the details of the case which discussed investment in coal power plants in a country.
The challenge in preparing for this competition by the representative team from UNAIR, according to Axel, is that none of the team members have experience in investment law and all team members who are batch 2019 are new mooters. Other problems are online training and research which according to Axel and his teammates is more difficult and tiring.
“Another problem is that we started preparations for the FDI competition too late. Initially we wanted to take part in another international competition, A-IMCC but it was canceled due to the pandemic. Finally, we decided to take part in the 2020 FDI Arbitration with limited preparation, ”he said.
In preparing for this competition, the representative team from UNAIR was assisted by ILSA alumni such as Dewi Santoso and the Dean of Faculty of Law UNAIR Iman Prihandono as coaches. During the competition, Axel shared that some of the participants were legal interns at a well-known law firm and several others were champions of regional rounds, while in Indonesian region in Southeast Asia there were no regional rounds.
“Moreover, we feel like newcomers who have less experience in this competition, so that is a form of challenge too,” said Axel.
However, the efforts made by the UNAIR representative team brought results and they won the fourth place. Furthermore, each member also received an achievement in the best speaker category. Axel Cross was ranked 3rd out of 242 speakers in the competition. Alex Wijaya was 16th place, Thesalonica Shinta was 46th place, and Lailatul Maghfira’s rank is at the top half of all participants.
“We hope from this achievement, friends from class of 2020 or the previous class will not be afraid to try and take part in the IMCC or Arbitration Moot competition in the future because if there is a desire, surely it can be learned and we will help you in IMCC,” he concluded.
Author: Pradnya Wicaksana
Editor: Nuri Hermawan
