The Italian Negotiation Competition is a student competition in which a team of two law students representing a party/client negotiates either an international transaction or the resolution of an international dispute with another team of two law students. Teams coming from different universities in Italy will compete before a judging panel, consisting of professors, lawyers, businessmen and experts of alternative dispute resolutions methods. Winning the national competition will grant the winning team the chance to represent Italy at the International Negotiation Competition, which will take place in Tokyo.
THE COMPETITION
The Competition will be held in English and will consist of two rounds: each team in each round will participate in a:
- 10 minute pre-negotiation session with the judges (5 minutes per team, outside of the presence of the other team);
- 60 minute negotiation session;
- 10 minute period for teams to prepare for their reflection
- 20 minute reflection period (10 minutes per team, outside of the presence of the other team) in the presence of the judges; and
- 15-minute comment period during which the judges give the teams feedback (with both teams present).
Each team involved in a round will receive three scores from each judge (1) a “direct” (head-to-head) score based only on an evaluation with the other team with whom it negotiated; (2) a “side” score based only on a comparison between the teams that represented the same side in each round; and (3) a “cross” score that compares the two teams on opposite sides that did not negotiate with each other. These scores will be used to determine a “round” score for each team. To determine final placement in the competition, the round scores will be totaled. The team with the lowest cumulative total is the winner of the competition.