Chanakya Centre For Alternative Dispute Resolution (CCADR) Rule Book |
Format: Intra-ADR Competition
A competition providing a platform and opportunity for the students of Chanakya National Law University to practise and improve their negotiation/mediation skills. The aim of the competition is to inculcate and foster a culture of ADR at the University. The competition would simulate legal negotiations requiring law students to negotiate a series of laws and practical situations. Based on the rankings derived from this competition, students will be allotted ADR Competitions annually.
Article 1 – General Information
Language: The Official Language of the competition, for all purposes, shall be English. All written and oral submissions shall be made in English.
Dress Code: The Dress Code of the Competition shall be business formals.
Platform: The competition shall be held virtually, through MS Teams.
Code of Conduct: Competition Administrator reserves the right to disqualify any team for any kind of misconduct on the part of any member of the team, during the competition.
In case of any doubt, the decision of the Competition Administrator shall be final and binding upon all the interested parties.
Article 2 – Definitions
“BATNA” means the Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement and refers to what is the most feasible step for a party to take, if the Parties fail to reach an agreement.
“Caucus” shall refer to a private meeting between the Mediators and a Team. During the Caucus, the overall time of the Mediation Session continues to run.
“Competition” means the CCADR Intra ADR Competition
“Competition Administrator(s)” means CCADR, CNLU.
“Competition Rules” means the rules and guidelines mentioned herein.
“Confidential Information” means factual information, given exclusively to one party, in accordance with the rules of the competition.
“Cross-Caucus” refers to a separate meeting between the Mediator and both Counsels or a separate meeting between the Mediator and both Clients.
“General Information” is the factual information provided to all the registered participants.
“Judge” means a lawyer, or an academician nominated and/or selected by the Competition Administrator who evaluates and scores the performance of the Participating Team during a Mediation Session in accordance with the Competition Rules.
“Negotiating Team” refers to two participants out of a team of three, acting in the capacity of client and counsel for the purposes of the competition.
“Mediator” refers to a member of a team of three who shall be acting individually in the capacity of a mediator for the purposes of the competition.
“Mediation Room” refers to the virtual mediation table set-up where the competition shall take place.
“Participating Team” refers to a team whose registration has been approved by the Competition Administrator.
“Requesting Party” stands for the party, in the proposition, at whose behest the option of mediation was exercised.
“Responding Party” stands for the party other than the requesting party in the mediation proceedings.
“Submission date” stands for the date of submission of the Mediation Plan for each, as notified by the Competition Administrator.
“WATNA” means the Worst Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement and refers to the worst outcome if negotiation fails.
Article 3 – Team Composition
The students can participate either as a negotiating team (Client-Counsel) or as a mediator. The registrations for these positions will be done separately through the google form released by CCADR. No further registration requests will be considered after the deadline.
For a successful withdrawal, a member of the team is supposed to fill in their details and submit the google form, which will be released by the CCADR specifically for the purpose of withdrawal from the 1st Intra Mediation Competition after the release of the General Information.
Withdrawal post deadline will attract penalties in the form of a ban from representing the institute in any ADR-related activity for a specified period, at least one year.
Article 4 – Release of Proposition
The General Information for the competition shall be released at least 3 days prior to the date of the competition. Confidential Information shall be disclosed to respective Requesting and Responding parties at least 30 mins before the rounds.
Any request for clarifications can be sent to ccadr@cnlu.ac.in.
Article 5 – Format of the Competition
The competition shall be held in the format of a mediation competition where at every mediation table, there will be two negotiating teams and two mediators.
The tournament shall have one round, and the time limit shall be 60 minutes, inclusive of a feedback session from judges.
The competition will follow a standard mediation format, wherein Mediators will be allotted a different mediation room than their Teammates/Negotiating Team, i.e. the client and counsel.
Article 6 – Private Caucus
During each Mediation Session, the Mediator, as well as the parties, are allowed to call for a caucus. The caucus is not mandatory for mediation however, each team will have a maximum of one caucus.
The Competing Team should call for caucus when they believe that they need input from the Mediators or there is some Confidential Information which they are not comfortable sharing during the Joint Session. A reasonable use of caucus from the parties will be evaluated. A Caucus must not be used for any clarification related to the Rounds.
Whenever there is a call for Caucus, the other party shall leave the room. The caucus shall take place between the Mediator and one party at once. There shall be no caucus in the last 5 minutes of the session.
Each team will be allotted a maximum of 4 minutes for a caucus in each round and only once. Thus, the whole caucus for both the parties will last for not more than 8 minutes.
There is no provision for cross-caucus.
Article 7 – Judges
The Competition Rounds shall be adjudged by such judges as would be selected by the Competition Administrator.
The rounds shall comprise of two judges in each Mediation Room.
Before the rounds, the judges will be briefed about the parameter for scoring, and an attempt for an average marking system shall be made across all mediation rooms.
Refer to Annexure 1 for detailed markings.
The decision of the judges shall be binding.
Article 8 - Rank List
There will be separate marking criteria for the negotiating pairs and the mediators.
Two rank lists will be published. The first list will contain total scores and rankings for the negotiating pairs. The second list will contain the scores and rankings of the mediators.
In case of a tie-breaker, CCADR will make a decision based on the below mentioned parameters:
A. Negotiating Team
i. Overall Client Score (The team with a higher client score will be given preference)
ii. Negotiation Strategy
iii. Team Work and Coordination
B. Mediator
i. Opening Statement
ii. Facilitating Option Generation
iii. Time Management
iv. Creating an appropriate environment
Article 9 - Allotment of Competitions
Depending on the nature and composition required by any competition, the slots for the negotiators/client-counsel pair and the slots for mediators will be notified separately.
The allotment process will follow the rules herein:
In the first instance, a competition will be notified for allocation on the basis of the rank list. Out of all the teams applying for the competition, the negotiators/client-counsel pair with the highest rank and the mediator with the highest mediator rank will be allotted the respective slots.
In case no individual applies for the mediator slot, the same will be re-notified under the open category.
In case no team applies for the negotiators/client-counsel slot, the same will be re-notified for allotment for mediator-rank holders. Out of all the individuals, who have a mediator rank, applying for the competition, the one with the highest mediator rank will be allotted the negotiators/client-counsel slot. He/she will be at liberty to form a pair with any student from the University.
In case no individual, with a mediator rank, applies for the negotiators/client-counsel slot, the same will be re-notified under the open category.
Once a competition has been allotted, any failure on the part of the team to register for the same will attract show cause from CCADR, and disciplinary action will follow.
Notwithstanding anything contained in any part of these rules or any discretion exercised by any authority under any other set of rules for the time being in force, allotment of an External ADR Competition shall not be claimed as a matter of right. It shall completely be at the discretion of the CCADR.
Depending on the nature and composition requirements of any external competition, CCADR reserves the right to modify or adopt a different format for the allocation of these competitions.
PROVIDED, when an individual is allotted a negotiators/client-counsel slot on the basis of mediator rank, he/she shall take prior consent from CCADR before forming a pair.
Article 10 – Power to make and amend these rules
CCADR reserves the right to change these rules anytime and to make exceptions as it deems fit.
In case of an amendment, CCADR will send an official notification through email.
Post the communication of any such aforementioned amendment, it will be deemed to have come in force.
Annexure – I
MARKING CRITERIA
1. Negotiating Team
S. No. | Criteria | Marks Allotted |
|---|---|---|
Opening Statement (Expressing confidence in the process, skilful articulation of facts to put forth the case, persuasive comments to influence the other party) | 10 | |
2. | Constructive Approach (Willingness to collaborate, taking the initiative to build a problem-solving approach, strategically sacrificing interests to build a relationship) | 10 |
3. | Advocating Interests (Assessment of one’s own strengths and weaknesses, identifying and developing client’s real needs and interests, identifying common and conflicting interests) | 10 |
4. | Teamwork and Coordination (Effectiveness of collaboration, reliance and faith in each other’s ability, working together as a team, communicating with each other, sharing of responsibility, providing mutual support) | 10 |
5. | Use of services of Mediator (Timely use of mediators, Beneficial use of mediators, Listening to the mediators) | 10 |
6. | Effective use of confidential information (Decision on disclosure of confidential information, Timely and appropriate disclosure of confidential information, Incorporating confidential information in Negotiation Strategy) | 10 |
7. | Body Language (Display of appropriate emotions by the client, Display of professionalism, Listening skills, Demeanour) | 10 |
8. | Mutually Generating Creative Options (Generating options to satisfy one’s needs and interests, efforts made to satisfy other’s interests, non-judgmental approach, objective evaluation of options generated by other party) | 10 |
9. | Negotiation Strategy (Overall strategy developed to deal with the dispute, time spent on relation building, information gathering, and slowly moving into negotiation; change of approach, adaptability) | 10 |
10. | Time Management (Ensuring judicial use of time in conference, adherence to the time divisions stipulated in the Rules) | 10 |
2. Mediator
S. No. | Criteria | Marks Allotted |
|---|---|---|
1 . | Opening Statement (Conveying the importance of the process, Tactics adopted to calm parties, and Effective explanation of the process with special reference to his/her role) | 10 |
2. | Creating an appropriate environment (Laying down ground rules, nature of the approach, Making the parties comfortable, establishing a ‘negotiation’ environment, Building trust with parties) | 10 |
3. | Control over the session (Laying down of effective agenda, Adherence to ground rules, assisting parties to move forward in the session, Timely intervention) | 10 |
4. | Ability to work as a team (Teamwork and Cooperation with co-mediator) | 10 |
5. | Eliciting information from Mediating Pair (Framing of questions, Manner of asking uncomfortable questions, collecting information while maintaining an unbiased image, Optimum use of time by asking only relevant questions) | 10 |
6. | Conduct and Demeanour (Body language, listening skills, Professionalism, display of patience) | 10 |
7. | Facilitating Option Generation (Approach adopted in assisting option generation, Steps taken to keep options realistic, Encouraging the parties to generate win-win options) | 10 |
8. | Conduct (Neutrality, Non-judgemental approach, Impartiality) | 10 |
9. | Closing Statement (Summarising the mediation session, Effective ending to the session) | 10 |
10. | Time Management (Ensuring judicial use of time in conference and caucus, Adherence to the time divisions stipulated in the Rules) | 10 |
Annexure II
CODE OF CONDUCT
For Intra Competition
Use of other electronic devices, such as mobile phones of any type or other electronic devices, other than tablets, laptops etc, used to access the Competition’s Video Conferencing platforms is strictly prohibited.
Disclosure of confidential information by any team before or after their own round shall be grounds for immediate disqualification from the competition. Any attempt to obtain confidential information with regard to the problems will lead to immediate disqualification of either Negotiation or Mediation,
The members of the same Negotiation Team need not log in from the same device or from the same place for the purposes of rounds.
Adherence to the time limit is mandatory, and the teams shall be accordingly penalised for an unreasonable extension.
The creation of extraneous facts is barred, and the same shall be penalized heavily. However, participants may narrowly interpret the problems and confidential information, to draw reasonable conclusions. It is advised that any assumptions sought to be made should ideally be clarified with the ADR Board. It is clarified that any real-life events not referred to in the problem shall be assumed not to have occurred. For instance, if a problem does not refer to the COVID-19 pandemic having occurred, the participants shall not assume the existence of the same.
For External Competitions
The team(s) shall face disciplinary action and/or subsequent debarment from participating in external competitions in the field of ADR and/or debarment from participating in all the activities, events or programs hosted/organized by CCADR or which CCADR is part of if:
Any student of Chanakya National Law University registers for any External Competition in the field of ADR or any competition as recognized by CCADR, wholly or partly in their ambit, without participating in the bidding process for that particular competition or without the written approval from CCADR.
Any conduct during the external competition which undermines the credibility and reputation of Chanakya National Law University, Patna.
Failure to adhere to the instructions given by CCADR in the matters of, but not limited to, registration, submissions, mocks or any other instruction or direction which CCADR may deem fit in the interest of quality of participation.
As updated on 11th November 2022.
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