On 26 and 27 April the DIS organized at its premises in Bonn an advanced mediation workshop for 19 students and coaches from 10 universities who had participated in the 31st Vis Moot Court. Under the title “Mediating the Vis Case” the workshop leaders Natascha Tunkel and Katja Kröll showed how the parties to the Vis case could have mediated their dispute.
The highly interactive workshop looked at the interests and economic factors underlying the dispute and determining the zone of possible agreements, suitable means of dispute resolution, the required preparation for a mediation both from the parties’ and the mediators’ side, techniques used in a mediation by the mediator and the various steps in the mediation process.
Following role plays on different stages of a mediation such as on how to convince the other side to go to mediation, the opening stages, the participants had in their final role play to mediate the Vis dispute. In addition to being inspired by new perspectives, the students also had the opportunity to network together at the DIS barbecue. The workshop leaders were joined by Thomas John, director of the CDRC, and Eric Ives, attorney advisor of the Unites States Department of Commerce working for the CLDP, who supported the workshop as experts, as well as Stefan Kröll, the chairman of the DIS and one of the directors of the Vis Moot Court.
Katja Kröll