10th NLIU – Justice R.K. Tankha Memorial International Arbitration Moot, 2025: Register by Feb 3

About the Organisers 

The National Law Institute University, Bhopal (NLIU), established in 1997, has consistently been accredited as one of the leading legal institutions of the country. The Moot Court Association (‘MCA’) is one of the oldest student-bodies at NLIU; established in 2002. The MCA is responsible for all the mooting and allied activities like client counselling competitions. This Moot is the flagship NLIU moot, organised annually in partnership with the Office of Mr. Vivek Tankha, (Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India and Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha), in the memory of his father Late Hon’ble Mr. Justice R.K. Tankha.

About the Competition

The 10^th NLIU – Justice R.K. Tankha Memorial International Arbitration Moot, 2025 is going to be held physically on campus of NLIU, Bhopal from 04th – 06th April, 2025. The competition will have two rounds – first, a Memorial Qualification round and second, Oral Rounds. All the teams completing the provisional registration will receive a link for completing the final registration for the memorial qualification round of the competition. After the results of the memorial qualification round are declared, top 40 teams will be invited to participate in the oral rounds of the competition.

Eligibility

The competition is open to all law students enrolled in a 5-year integrated law course or a 3-year LLB program.

Theme of the Case Record

The Case Record for this edition is being drafted by Mr. Mohit Khubchandani (Visiting Foreign Lawyer, WilmerHale LLP). He is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies at Leiden University. He holds a Masters in International Environmental & Energy Law from Stanford Law. He is an International Disputes Resolution Attorney with 10 years of experience in Public International Law, Investment & Commercial Arbitration.

This year’s record brings novel questions of international commercial arbitration, international investment arbitration, and public international law. For procedure, the case involves a challenge to the impleadment of a party before an investment tribunal – a dismissed arbitration – a new commercial arbitration – and challenge to an arbitrator for subject-matter bias under the newly enacted SIAC Arbitration Rules in January 2025 and related laws. For merits, the case involves damage to certain species and agriculture, and a pre-decided award on merits! The teams are then required argue at the stage of damages by employing municipal and international best practices for calculating environmental compensation.

Timeline of the Moot

• Deadline for Provisional Registration: 3rd February, 2025
• Release of the Case record, Rulebook, and Brochure: 1st February, 2025
• Deadline for seeking Clarifications: 7th February, 2025
• Deadline for Final Registration (to be completed only after confirmation): 7th February, 2025
• Release of Clarifications: 12th February, 2025 
• Submission of Memorials: 8th March, 2025
• Declaration of Memorial Qualifier Results:  15th March, 2025
• Oral Rounds: 4th to 6th April, 2025

Registration Fees

The registration Fee for the memorial qualification of the Moot is INR 3,000/- per team which is to be paid after receiving the email containing the details for final registration. Subsequent to the qualification to the oral rounds, the team shall be required to pay an additional fee of Rs. 3,000 per member for accommodation and travel which is intimated in the rulebook of the competition.

Registration Process

It is imperative for the interested institutions to provisionally register themselves to enable their teams to participate in the Moot. The link to access the google form for provisional registration is attached here. Kindly fill this form latest by February 3, 2025 and no provisional registration will be accepted via email or any other mode of communication. 

Only upon the confirmation of the provisional registration by the Administrators, each team shall register for the Competition by filling the online registration form before 7^th February, 2025. The online registration form will be sent to the institution’s moot court society once the said institution’s provisional registration has been confirmed.

Contact Information

Please feel free to reach us at [email protected], [email protected] or on the numbers given below, should you require any assistance/clarification.

• Anwesh Patnaik (Joint-Convenor): +91 8800189275
• Rituraj Singh Parmar (Joint-Convenor): +91 8770323874
• Pranjal Kushwaha (Joint-Secretary): +91 8174958542
• Ishita Warghat (Joint-Secretary): +91 8657294262

The Rulebook of the competition can be accessed through the link available here.