Department of Justice co-organises Investment Law and Investor-State Mediator Training Course

     The Department of Justice (DoJ) is currently co-organising the Investment Law and Investor-State Mediator Training Course, the first investment law-cum-investment mediation training course in Asia, together with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and the Asian Academy of International Law. 
 
     With the conclusion of the investment agreement under the framework of the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) on June 28, 2017, which provides mediation as a means of dispute resolution, the training course is one of the DoJ's initiatives towards developing Hong Kong into an international investment law and international investment dispute resolution skills training base. The goal is to build up a team of investment mediators in Asia to handle international investment disputes.
  
     Topics covered in the training include the fundamentals of investment arbitration and its reform for investor-State dispute settlement, an analysis of main investment treaty cases and a study of mediation in the context of investor-State disputes. The training course also engages participants through role play in investment mediation, and explores topics such as mediation process consideration and stakeholder mapping analysis for case studies. 
 
     The week-long training course, which concludes this Sunday (October 21), attracted enthusiastic responses. Some 50 participants from around the world, including government officials from Mainland China, ASEAN countries, the Middle East, Africa, South America and Hong Kong, as well as local and overseas legal and mediation practitioners, gathered for this Asia premiere of intellectual and professional exchange in these subject areas.
 
     The training course included a stellar line-up of participating trainers, comprising experts from the ICSID and the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution as well as experienced practitioners and academics in the field. 
 
     As another initiative to promote the use of mediation in Hong Kong, the DoJ partnered with the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) – Hong Kong to bring the ICC mediation competition to Hong Kong and Asia for the first time. The inaugural ICC International Commercial Mediation Competition – Hong Kong drew the participation of 16 teams from universities of different jurisdictions to compete in simulated commercial mediations, who were judged by top-notch local and overseas mediators and judges. The City University of Hong Kong team outwitted all other teams and emerged victorious from the finals held on October 15.