We are pleased to announce the opening of the registration of the first edition of the UPICC International Arbitration Moot, co-organised by the UNIDROIT Asian Transnational Law Centre (ATLC) and Shanghai International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (Shanghai International Arbitration Centre) (SHIAC).
Introduction
The Asian Transnational Law Centre (ATLC) was established by UNIDROIT in 2024, as an initiative under the UNIDROIT Academy. The ATLC aims to promote the work of UNIDROIT and its international legal instruments and projects in Asia. This initiative seeks to strengthen the connection between relevant stakeholders in Asia and UNIDROIT, fostering legal cooperation and economic integration among Asian countries.
The UPICC was developed by UNIDROIT and since its initial adoption in 1994 it has become the world’s most important international soft law instrument in the field of international contract law.
Under the auspices of the ATLC, the first UPICC International Arbitration Moot was formally launched in November 2024 in Shanghai (China). The UPICC Moot marks a significant step in promoting the use of the UPICC within Asia’s burgeoning commercial arbitration community. Through its collaborative and practical approach, the UPICC Moot seeks to foster the development of a new generation of legal professionals with deep expertise in the use of the UPICC to facilitate effective dispute resolution. The UPICC Moot achieves this objective by simulating arbitration proceedings applying the UPICC Principles to a hypothetical commercial arbitration case.
Audience
The UPICC Moot is open to law students specialising in international arbitration or contract law from the Asia-Pacific region. Approximately twenty teams are expected to be selected to compete in the preliminary round in China. The top four teams in the preliminary round will be selected for the semi-final and final rounds in Rome.
Venue
The preliminary rounds of the first edition of the UPICC Moot will be held on-site in Shanghai between November 3-4, 2025. The semi-final and final rounds will take place at the UNIDROIT headquarters in Rome, Italy, in December 2025 or January, 2026.
Funding
Teams are responsible for funding their own participation in the preliminary rounds in Shanghai including travel, accommodation, living expenses, and other related costs. On request, some teams travelling internationally to compete may be granted limited funding to partially cover travel costs, subject to sponsorship arrangements. No registration fee will be charged.
Competition schedule
| 10 April 2025 | Opening of team registration and release of the official rules of the Moot |
| 23 April 2025 | Anticipated release of the Moot problem |
| 30 April 2025 | Deadline for request for clarification of the Moot problem |
| 13 June 2025 | Release of clarification of the Moot problem |
| 12 July 2025 | Deadline for registration |
| 29 July 2025 | Deadline for submission of memorial |
| 29 August 2025 | Confirmation of the teams advancing to the oral hearing rounds |
| 3-4 November 2025 | Preliminary rounds in Shanghai, China |
| Dec 2025 / Jan 2026 | Semi-final and final rounds in Rome, Italy |
Registration
Teams interested in participating in the first edition of the UPICC Moot are required to submit their registration information by 23:59 CEST July 12, 2025, to upiccmoot@unidroit.org and moot@shiac.org.
The following information should be included in the email submission:
- Name of university and country;
- team members (no more than five) and their names;
- team coach or advisor (if any);
- name of contact person;
- email address of the team contact person for the Moot communications;
- secondary email address for the Moot communications; and
- phone number of team contact person.
Please note that the number of participating teams is limited. The final list of participating teams advancing to the oral hearing rounds will be determined based on specific selection criteria, taking into account the memo scores, geographical representation, diversity, and other factors.
The official rules of the UPICC International Arbitration Moot are available on the ATLC webpage. Additional Moot-related materials, including the Moot Problem, will be released in due course.
For more information, please contact upiccmoot@unidroit.org.
Professor Iacopo Donati is the UNIDROIT/Bank of Italy Chair Holder and is mainly responsible for assisting in the Bank Insolvency project. He is Professor of Corporate and Insolvency Law at the University of Siena, and coordinates the research project ‘Pro.Re.Ba.’ (Proportionating rules on bank crisis prevention and management to the case of retail banks), which has received funding from the Italian Ministry of University. He has previously taught corporate law at the University of Venice ‘Ca’ Foscari’, at the University of Florence and at the University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’.
rtered Institute of Arbitrators (London). He further holds a post-graduate diploma in law from the Kenya School of Law. Allan is also a scholar from the Hague Academy of International Law.
rofessor Ignacio Tirado was appointed Secretary-General by the Governing Council at its 97th session, and officially took office on 27 August 2018. A national of Spain, Professor Tirado (Commercial, Corporate and Insolvency Law, Universidad Autónoma of Madrid, Spain) holds a PhD from the Universities of Bologna and Autónoma de Madrid and an LLM from the University of London. Professor Tirado has been a Senior Legal Consultant at the World Bank’s Legal Vice-Presidency and Financial Sector Practice for more than nine years, having also consulted for the IMF on insolvency related matters as well as for the Asian Development Bank on commercial legal reform.
A Swedish national, Ms Lena Peters grew up in Italy where she attended an English school. In 1978 she took her Juris Kandidatexamen at Stockholm University followed by a Master of Laws from King’s College, London (1979). Since 1985 she has been with UNIDROIT, first as Research Officer, lastly as Principal Legal Officer, her main duties being Secretary to the Working Group for the Preparation of Principles of International Commercial Contracts, Secretary to the Study Group on Franchising, Secretary to the Committee of Governmental Experts on Franchising.She also collaborated on the project for the preparation of the ELI-Unidroit Model European Rules of Civil Procedure. She is currently Managing Editor of the Uniform Law Review and responsible for publications at UNIDROIT.
Marina Schneider is Principal Legal Officer and Treaty Depositary at UNIDROIT. She studied law at the University of Strasbourg (France) and Paris I – Panthéon Sorbonne. She joined the UNIDROIT in 1987 and was involved in the elaboration and French versions of most UNIDROIT instruments since. She is in charge of the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects and of the UNESCO-UNIDROIT Model Provisions on State Ownership of Undiscovered Cultural Objects. She is the author of the Explanatory Report of the 1995 Convention and many articles on the Convention and other international instruments in the field. Ms Schneider is also responsible for the project on private collections and for the UNIDROIT Convention Academic Project (UCAP). She is member of the Board of the International Society for Research on Art and Cultural Heritage Law (ISCHAL).
Professor of Commercial Law, Carlos III University of Madrid. Currently, Sir Roy Goode Scholar at UNIDROIT, Rome, 2021-2022. Chair of Excellence 2017-2018 at University of Oxford (Uc3m- Santander Program), affiliated to Harris Manchester College. Previously Distinguished Visiting Professor and fellow of a number of Academic Institutions. Arbitrator of Madrid Court of Arbitration. Member of ELI (European Law Institute) Council and Executive Committee. Member of the Expert Group of the European Commission on Liability and New Technologies and member of the Expert Group of the European Observatory of Platform Economy; the International Academy of Commercial and Consumer Law; the expert group of the Inclusive Global Legal Innovation Platform for Online Dispute Resolution – UNCITRAL and Hong Kong Department of Justice. Expert of the UNIDROIT Study Group on the MAC Protocol of the Cape Town Convention on International Interests. Delegate of Spain to UNIDROIT for the adoption of the Protocol, delegate of Spain in Working Group VI of UNCITRAL on secured transactions and in Working Group IV on Electronic Commerce. Member of UNIDROIT Working Groups on Enforcement and Warehouse Receipts.
William Brydie-Watson is an Australian lawyer who specialises in secured transactions law and private international law. Before joining UNIDROIT, William was a government lawyer in the Private International Law and International Arbitration section of the Australian Attorney-General’s Department, where he worked primarily on treaty negotiation and the implementation of private international law treaties in Australia. At UNIDROIT, he is primarily responsible for the implementation of the Mining, Agriculture and Construction (MAC Protocol) to the 2001 Cape Town Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment and the development of a Model Law on Factoring. William also serves as UNIDROIT’s liaison with the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum and as manager of the Institute’s Scholarship and Internship Programme. Admitted to practice in New South Wales and the High Court of Australia, he has a Bachelor of Arts (honours), a Bachelor of Laws and a Master of Laws from the Australian National University. William also lectures on International Secured Transactions Law at the Eotvos Lorand Faculty of Law in Budapest.