In 2022, Swansea entered the International Chamber of Commerce Mediation Competition for the first time.
This is one of the most challenging mediation competitions in the world, with upwards of 50 teams competing every year from around the world. In that first attempt, the team performed exceptionally, winning the award for Best Newcomer Team. In 2026, our application was accepted to compete for a second time.
The best laid plans inevitably go awry after planning to bed in a team with warm up events, and in the end the team that was selected was an entirely new team that had not worked together before. Nonetheless both final years, Keara-Lynn Douglas and Amelia Smith showed their resilience in overcoming a truncated preparation period and immediately gelled as a team. Heading off to Paris for the competition in February, they were prepared and confident.
The draw saw them competing against teams from Austria, Indonesia, and India in the Preliminary Rounds- all in complex relationship challenges that required strong engagement and commercial awareness, to say nothing of a confidence with numbers- rarely the favoured path for lawyers or law students. The feedback from the judges was a testament to their preparation and flexibility as they utilised a range of negotiation and mediation techniques to overcome the hurdles within the mediation sessions, and it was particularly helpful to receive feedback from the accredited mediators who were convening each session.
When the results were announced, it was confirmed that Swansea had placed in the top 16 (out of 60 teams this year) and thus qualified for the Octo-Finals. This was a fantastic and deserved reward for the learning development and preparation that Keara-Lynn and Amelia had put into the competition.
The first knockout round was against the University of New South Wales- who have regularly reached the latter stages of the competition and won it on several occasions. The round itself was tough but the feedback was impressive including the comment that it was “worthy of a Final round”. In the end a split decision fell in favour of New South Wales, who also ended up progressing as one of the top 4 scoring teams to the Semi Finals. The team were disappointed but had performed brilliantly in one of the hardest competitions to navigate and fully deserved placing as the highest achieving Swansea team in this competition.
A huge thanks to Swansea University Law Lecturer Sophie Hill who accompanied the team to Paris as coach- your efforts were greatly appreciated.