The Foreign Direct Investment International Arbitration Moot (“FDI Moot”) is an international arbitration moot competition focusing on investor-State disputes. Each year, approximately 100 teams from around the world participate in this contest, including an Egyptian team.
This competition, initiated in 2006 by the Centre for International Legal Studies (CILS), Suffolk, Pepperdine, DIS, King's College London and CILS established the FDI Moot as an ambitious new international competition focusing on investor-State disputes. In belief of the importance of mooting culture and the crucial nature of the FDI Moot, Matouk Bassiouny & Hennawy (“MBH”) brought this competition to Egypt hosting the FDI Egyptian rounds back in 2019. MBH continued to host the FDI Moot Court in 2021, 2022 and aims to further host the FDI Egypt National Rounds for years to come.
The competition consists of two stages. During the first stage of this moot court, all teams prepare for the oral rounds. Each team participates in arbitration hearings’ simulations. The winning team, which qualifies for the international rounds, prepares memorials for the claimant and the respondent. Therefore, the FDI moot plays a vital role in advancing the oral and written advocacy skills of students.
On the 12th and 13th of August 2022 teams from a range of Egyptian universities participated in the competition: Ain Shams University, Cairo University – English Section, and Alexandria University. The two-day tournament was divided into preliminary, semi-final and final phases in which the competing teams pleaded as both claimants and respondents. The participating arbitrators included professors, judges, Egyptian and foreign arbitration practitioners. The arbitrators for the final national round of the FDI Moot Court 2022 were Dr. Khaled El Shalakany, Dr. Yassin El Shazly and Dr. Amr Abbas. The 2022 FDI Moot case is a cannabis growing investment that is lost due to a civil war in the host country.
After a heated competition, the qualified teams for the final rounds were Cairo University – English Section and Alexandria University. The winner was the team from the English Section from Cairo University, who now qualified for the international rounds. The Best Oralist Award went to Yoanna Essam from Cairo University - English Section, the First Runner Up went to Ahmed Moussa from Cairo University - English Section, and the Second Runner Up went to Hania Hesham from Ain Shams University - English Section.
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