In addition to winning high-profile international mooting competitions overseas, City University of Hong Kong (CityU) also plays host to a mooting competition of its own, one which emphasises the all-important areas of arbitration and mediation.
First pioneered by CityU in 2010 , the International Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Mooting Competition allows students to act as arbitrators and mediators, making it the world's only mooting competition of its kind.
'In other moots, students only represent a client by acting as their lawyer,' says Rajesh Sharma, assistant professor and moot director at CityU School of Law.
Organised in association with the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) and Columbia University's School of Law, the ADR mooting competition attracts teams from top law schools in Asia and from around the world.
Sharma says students who take part in the ADR moot - each of which receive the opportunity appear before a judge, to make oral presentations and to rebut the arguments of opposing counsel - encounter courtroom scenarios many young professionals wait years to experience. 'It can take anywhere between five to 10 years to get into a room where real mediation takes place,' he says.
'In classes, students learn about theory, but through mooting, they see documents of scenarios similar to those they might see as their career develops,' says Sharma, adding that students also learn how to write, research and work as a team member while still acting independently. They learn how to question and answer in an articulate way as well.