From November 19 to 21, 2021, students of the Law Faculty of the UK participated in the 7th annual international negotiation and mediation competition
Studenti právnické fakulty UK se ve dnech 19. až 21. listopadu 2021 zúčastnili 7. ročníku mezinárodní vyjednávací a mediační soutěže The Bucerius Mediation Competition organized by the Bucerius Law School in Hamburg. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the competition took place in a hybrid format, our team participated online. A team of law faculty students, consisting of Jakub Bína, Magdaléna Hlaváčková, Lukáš Jirásek, Jan Kubíček and Petr Ráliš, competed against teams from different countries and continents in the negotiation competition.
Online competition has its advantages
“The online form also has its advantages – we managed to get the recordings of our competition laps, so we can do a detailed debriefing of them and identify what specifically we want to improve on our performance,” the team members agree.
During the competition, the participants solved various cases:
- A shop with unique vintage cars, when it was not clear whether the precious car was really an original
- A dispute between pharmaceutical companies working together to produce a cancer drug has also involved a tug-of-war over key employees
- A problematic relationship between a non-profit organization working in the field of nature conservation and a developer who wants to implement a construction project in a protected landscape area located in a hitherto untouched area in the mountains of Pakistan
The competition is an excellent opportunity to hone skills that always come in handy
“Our team was made up of both novices and seasoned competitive negotiators. After all, this was reflected in the point evaluation – in a round where the team was composed of experienced participants, the point evaluation was very above average. For Magdalena and Jakub, it was their first experience at a similar competition, and they gave a great performance,” the team described their impressions.
In fierce competition from top teams from all over the world (the competition was won by a team from the USA), the UK team failed to advance to the semi-finals this time. However, participation itself is a useful experience that students will use in their further studies, mediation and negotiation competitions, and especially in their personal and professional lives.
“Then we all took away useful tips from professionals in the field – we received feedback from lawyers and negotiators from the Netherlands, Austria and the USA. And one team member even got lucky and won online mediation training from the partner organization of the entire competition,” the participants add.
