Last updated: 2020-10-29

FDI Moot Virtual Hearing Instructions

The Virtual Venue
The “virtual venue” will be Zoom meetings hosted on Professional accounts maintained by the CENTER
FOR INTERNATIONAL LEGAL STUDIES. In each meeting, there will be:

i. 5 or 6 x (numbered e.g. 1-4) breakout rooms designated “Hearing 1”, “Hearing 2”, etc.
ii. 5 or 6 x corresponding breakout rooms designated Chambers 1”, Chambers 2”, etc.
iii. 1 x breakout room used as “Chambers (Standby 0)” for Standby Arbitrators and the Secretariat
iv. The Main Room (can be used for mingling)
v. The Waiting Room, where participants will be held (briefly) prior to being admitted by the host
when the meeting starts.

The Zoom meeting URLs (with Meeting ID and Passcode) can be obtained (login required) at

 Teams: https://fdimoot.org/teams/ourmatches.php and

 Arbitrators: https://fdimoot.org/college/arbsessions.2020.php

The URLs are different for each hearing session (and for each block of Hearing Rooms).

Tribunal Secretaries have co-host privileges: they can mute audio/video, rename attendees, and
independently move through all the meeting’s breakout rooms. The Chief Secretaries will have host
privileges, i.e. additionally, they can designate the co-hosts and move other participants to any breakout
room. Moving the right participants to the right breakout rooms at the right times will be a key
responsibility of the Chief Secretaries. Arbitrators will also have co-host privileges so they can also move
back and forth between their Chambers and their Hearing.

 Each Hearing Room will have 2 advocates and (optionally) 1 observer (audio/video muted) per
team and 3 arbitrators.
 On the conclusion of the hearing and after giving teams any feedback, the arbitrators may move
themselves to their corresponding Chamber for deliberation on scores; the Secretaries should
assist them if the arbitrators have any difficulty entering their scores online.
 On the conclusion of the hearing and after receiving any feedback from the arbitrators, the
teams may wait in the Hearing Room if they are expecting addition feedback after the
arbitrators have done their scores.
 If 5 minutes after a hearing was scheduled to start an arbitrator is still missing, notify the Chief
Secretary, who will select and move an arbitrator from the Standby Arbitrator Chambers (there
will be 4-8 standby arbitrators)   to the corresponding Hearing Room. The Chief Secretary will
communicate the change to CILS to adjust the records for scoring in the online competition
system.
 Standby Arbitrators will remain on call in the Arbitrator Standby Lounge for 20 minutes from the
scheduled start of the hearing session, after which they may socialize, listen to hearings (video
and audio muted; display name changed to “Observer”) or leave the Zoom meeting.
 If a team or arbitrator needs to communicate (an issue) to the Secretariat/CILS during a hearing,
ask (orally or private chat) the Secretary in the hearing room; use Zoom’s “Ask for help” feature;
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or if the pleadings have not yet started, go to the Main Room Chambers (Standby 0); if the
pleadings have started, use Whatsapp (e.g. “We need help in Hearing 4”)..

Using Zoom for the Hearing

Each participant (advocates, arbitrators, tribunal secretaries) will need (a) a Zoom Basic (free)1 account,
(b) a computer (PC or reasonably powerful notebook) with (i) webcam, (ii) a good mic/audio, and (iii)
earbuds/headphones to prevent feedback from loudspeakers, (c) and a stable internet connection, and
(d) a quiet place.

Only authenticated participants will be allowed to connect to Zoom, i.e. those signed in with their
account. The email associated with each Zoom account must be the same as the email your team
contact has provided us via the FDI Moot website.

For each hearing, max 4 people from each team will be allowed to connect into Zoom: the two
advocates who are pleading and (optionally) up to 2 observers (team captain/coach). Exceptionally, the
two advocates may participate via the same one connection. The team observer may share (stream)
his/her screen/audio to the other team members; this is solely at that team’s option and responsibility –
mind technical demands for this and ask the other participants’ permission.

Participants connecting to the Zoom hearings must ensure their display names appear exactly in the
formats below

Advocates: [Team Alias] [Role1/2]: [Advocate Name]

 [Team Alias] is the alias (an ICJ Judge’s surname) assigned to your team on registration.
 [Role1/2] is “C1”, “C2”, “R1”, or “R2” for the 1st or 2nd Claimant or Respondent Advocate to
plead.
 [Advocate Name] is the fore- and surname of the advocate exactly as the team has entered
it in the team roster online.

Where a team’s two advocates exceptionally connect through the same one connection, the screen
name format is: [Team Alias] [Role1]: [Advocate Name] / [Role2]: [Advocate Name].

 The advocates must sit (left/right) to correspond to the position of their names in the
display name. They should observe any local physical distancing recommendations and
accordingly adjust their screen, camera, audio (continue to use headphones, not loud-
speakers, but with a headphone-splitter).

Arbitrator: Arbitrator: [Arbitrator’s Name]

 [Arbitrator Name] is the fore- and surname of the arbitrator exactly as the arbitrator has
entered it online.

Secretaries: Secretary or Chief Secretary: [Secretary’s Name]

Each hearing involves two Zoom breakout rooms: arbitrator chambers and, primarily, the hearing room.

1
The Organizer and Chief Secretaries will have Professional licensed accounts.
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After admission to the Zoom meeting, team members will be sent to the hearing room, where they may
introduce themselves. Order of argument should have been finalized before the hearing by email and
submitted to the Tribunal via Zoom’s in-meeting chat function. If the teams have not agreed an order of
argument, they should submit their proposals via Zoom’s in-meeting chat function for the President of
the Tribunal to consider before she (or he) decides the order, ideally, also in writing via the chat
function.

After admission to the Zoom meeting, arbitrators will be sent to the chamber corresponding to their
hearing. There they may introduce each other and discuss how they would like to approach the hearing.

At the appointed time for the hearing to start, the Chief Secretary will ask (broadcast the breakout
rooms) the arbitrators to move to their hearing rooms.

When the hearing starts, advocates and arbitrators should introduce themselves very briefly; if the
hearing concludes promptly, there will be time for more socializing at the end (and we encourage this).

Arbitrators and advocates connecting to Zoom should ensure their display names reflect their fore- and
surnames as in their profiles on the FDI Moot website.

Arbitrators
Asking questions, “interrupting”, may not be as subtle in a videoconference as in a physical hearing. In a
Zoom hearing, ideally, 1) the arbitrator should use the “Open Mouth” reaction (bottom right on the
toolbar), 2) the pleading advocate will pause, and 3) the arbitrator will ask her question, but if the
pleading advocate does not pause within 4 or 5 seconds, the arbitrator should raise her own physical
hand visibly for the camera and interrupt the advocate (”Excuse me, counsel!”) and proceed to ask the
question. Advocates are aware not to take offence at being interrupted in this way.

Co-counsel can demonstrate teamwork by assisting the pleading advocate, e.g. directing his/her
attention to pages/lines in the file, notes taken about opposing counsel’s arguments, etc. If they are not
sitting next to each other at counsel table, they may use Zoom’s chat feature just as they might pass
notes if they were sitting next to each other at counsel table. Ex parte communications, such as private
chat messages between Counsel and any arbitrator, are not permitted.

Screensharing
The default is that counsel may not share their screens during pleading, however, if both teams agree
(when agreeing an order of argument), the President may permit counsel to share their screens to draw
the tribunal’s attention to specific passages of the case file, the teams’ written submissions, or
(verifiable) external authorities.

Timing of Zoom Meeting Session

The Zoom meeting sessions are scheduled to last 130 minutes

 0' Participants admitted to the Zoom meeting

 5' All participants moved into hearing rooms/chambers (breakout rooms open)
 15' Arbitrators move(d) from chambers to hearing rooms; Hearings commence
 95' Hearings should end
 110' Arbitrators' feedback to counsel should conclude; Arbitrators may retire to chambers if
they wish to consult on their assessments; Counsel and arbitrators may also agree to reconvene
Last updated: 2020-10-29

in the hearing room after the arbitrators have consulted in chambers and submitted their scores
(counsel wait in the hearing room).
 130' Zoom meeting connection TERMINATES PROMPTLY