In the last week of November, the capital of Belarus, Minsk, gathered representatives of the legal elite from many countries of the world. The international student competition on international labor law and arbitration ICC LexMercatoria is underway here.

The competition is a meeting of law students with arbitrators from all over the world, and an opportunity to learn how the arbitration process really works. It is difficult to get such an experience elsewhere. More information about the competition is available at http://m.belta.by/regions/view/minsk-sobral-na-konkurse-predstavitelej-juridicheskoj-elity-28-stran-220875-2016/.

This year, more than ever before, the competition is marked by a significant representation of participants - 27 teams arrived, which, together with the arbitrators, represent 28 countries of the world. The competition attracted the heads of powerful law firms, such as Dentons (152 offices in 50 countries, 24 economic sectors and 40 areas of practice of lawyers worldwide). Also, for the first time, a team from Harvard University Law School arrived in Belarus.

Before the tournament, the teams carefully analyzed a case (imaginary case) provided in advance, which consisted of the following: one of the parties ordered a fashionable yacht to give to his wife. Due to a defect in the door, the injured party assumes that the interior has deteriorated significantly. Therefore, it refuses to pay the remaining amount, since it was spent on covering the damage. Everything is complicated by the fact that the yacht was built with funds received using such a payment instrument as an international letter of credit.

The participants must answer whether this case can be considered in arbitration, as well as resolve a number of procedural and substantive issues. The winners will receive not only cups and valuable prizes, but also the opportunity to do internships in powerful international law firms. And the most important thing is experience, a clear understanding of how international arbitration of the highest level really works, since they are judged by practicing arbitrators.

The team of the Law Institute of PNU, consisting of Konstantin Yash, Iryna Fedorovych, Yuriy Marushchak, Natalia Adamovych and the talented teacher Iryna Ptashnyk, represents Western Ukraine at ICC LexMercatoria for the first time. In addition to our team, only one other team represents Ukraine in the English-speaking block - the Odessa Law Academy. According to the latest news, our team, consisting of Iryna Fedorovych and Konstantin Yash, has entered the quarterfinals! They had to compete with one of the strongest teams of the tournament - representatives of the Belarusian State University. According to the Ivano-Frankivsk players, only the Harvard team is equal to them.

We wish success to our young legal elite! Girls and boys, we are proud of you! We also once again express our sincere gratitude to the team's sponsor, the well-known Prykarpattia philanthropist, director of the financial company "Dekra" - Viktor Vintonyak. The team's success will be the best gratitude to you, Mr. Viktor, and to everyone who believed in our team and supported it.