The Contest was organisedby the Academy of European Law (ERA) and the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) and it was the first of its kind. It was aimed towards trainees and newly qualified lawyers from Bars belonging to the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe. 20 contestants from 10 nationalities nominated by their local or national Bars took part.
The aim of this contest was to provide a platform of discussion of new perspectives and ideas for trainees and newly qualified lawyers to share common values in areas of European and international law. To enhance the transnational and European character of the contest, the contestants were divided into six teams composed of three or four nominees from different Member States with different legal traditions and backgrounds.
The format of the contest was two half days with three rounds – three parallel quarter finals, semi-finals and a final round with the two best remaining teams. At each level, a different task has been mastered, which took the form of a written report on a legal question of EU business law (free movement of company law and copyright law in the Digital Single Market) followed by an oral debate on it, a negotiating exercise on company law, and a moot court exercise based on a real judgment from the General Court before the Jury.
The Jury was composed of five eminent members of the legal profession: Sir Nicholas Forwood QC, former Judge at the General Court of the European Union; Ms Margarete Gräfin von Galen, CCBE Third Vice-President; Ms Vanessa Knapp OBE, Independent Consultant, former Chair of the Company Law Committee of the CCBE and Member of ERA’s Board of Trustees; Mr Ranko Pelicarić, CCBE Second Vice-President; and Professor Alain Steichen, Founding Partner at Bonn Steichen & Partners in Luxembourg.
