In cooperation with the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research of Iraq (MOHESR) and the Commercial Law Development Program of the US Department of Commerce (CLDP), the American University of Iraq-Baghdad (AUIB) hosted the second Annual Arbitration Competition in Iraq on its campus, opening on the 20th of February 2022 and convening for three days, till the 22nd of the same month. College of Law teams of different universities participate in the moot court, the Annual Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot (Vis Moot), considered to be the world’s premier educational platform for international commercial arbitration.
AUIB President, Dr. Michael Mulnix, welcomed the attendees of the opening ceremony to their “second home”, inviting them to tour the university campus and its facilities, a “special place” that, despite its young age as a university, has secured its position as a “Tier One Research University” that would contribute to “reviving the Iraqi economy and restoring Iraqi leadership in the region and beyond,” said President Mulnix.
AUIB has already established partnerships with some of the most prestigious universities in the United States and Europe, and signed cooperation agreements with several Iraqi governmental bodies, such as the Ministries of Justice, Culture, and ‘Youth and Sports’, as well as business firms and specialized research foundations such as the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, explained President Mulnix, highlighting AUIB’s “American-style education,” the cornerstone of which is the teaching and developing of broad based Liberal Arts in the first years of its students’ academic life, and at any period in working professionals’ lives enrolled at the university’s Continuing Education Institute, making them “life-intelligent.” President Mulnix pointed out that the Vis Moot virtual court is in the same regard American-style, as it instills critical thinking and confidence in students, as well as the skills of public speaking, open dialogue and negotiation.
For his part, Iraq’s Minister of Justice, Judge Salar Abdul Sattar, appreciated AUIB’s role in “advancing science and development” in Iraq, commending the university’s capable faculty and its modern education techniques. The Minister applauded AUIB’s hosting of the virtual court, highlighting the latter’s important role in complementing theoretical study with practical experience “in a scientific and professional medium.”
Minister Abdul Sattar saw that resorting to arbitration in settling commercial disputes has become a necessity to the current workings of global commerce, and that arbitration is regarded as the most effective of mechanisms, by virtue of its simplicity of procedure and brevity of time thereof, in comparison to regular judicial procedure, as well as the conflicting parties’ entitlement to choosing arbitrators, and the confidentiality of proceedings, as per international norms, thus “safeguarding the reputation” of the parties involved and affording them “peace of mind”. That, according to Minister Abdul Sattar, is in contrast to the state of affairs with the regular judicial system, where sessions and proceedings are generally accessible to the public. Thus, based on Iraqi law’s recognition of arbitration, Minister Abdul Sattar spoke of a need to take faster paced practical steps towards adopting “international arbitration” as the primary mechanism by which commercial disputes are settled.
On a similar note, the Justice Attaché of the US Embassy in Baghdad cited the deliberations of a March 2014 forum in Dubai, where Iraqi judges spoke of their country’s “need to join the New York Convention” on international arbitration, noting that the convention had “entered into force for Iraq” on the 9th of February 2022, said the diplomat who described the Commercial Law Development Program as one of the “best partners for Iraqi law students, lawyers, and judiciary”, pledging its continued support.
Four of the contending Iraqi college teams qualified to participate in the upcoming competition in Bahrain next month, in preparation for the final competition that will be organized by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) in the Austrian capital, Vienna, where teams from over 300 universities around the world would compete.
The American University of Iraq – Baghdad is a non-profit university founded in 2018. It currently has eight colleges.