The 4th Global Sports Law Arbitration Moot (SLAM) - Registrations Open
LawInSport, the world’s leading sports law knowledge hub and global community, is pleased to announce that registrations are now open for the 4th edition of the international Sports Law Arbitration Moot (SLAM). The aim of this world class competition is to promote greater knowledge of the values and rules of international sports arbitration, the go to dispute resolution mechanism in the sector. The competition is open to all current students.
In the 3rd, we had 70+ teams from 20+ countries who were judged by 40+ expert sports lawyers and 30 CAS arbitrators from around the world. All oral rounds (i.e. from quarter final onwards) were judged solely by CAS arbitrators. For more details on the 3rd edition of SLAM, please see here.
SLAM will give students from around the world the opportunity to:
- Develop and showcase their legal and advocacy skills before the world’s leading arbitrators and practitioners virtually and in-person;
- Gain real world experience of international sports arbitration under the leading procedural rules;
- Receive training on writing submissions and advocacy from some of the world’s leading advocates and arbitrators in world sport.
The cases for each round will be based on real world scenarios and the registered teams will need to familiarise themselves with CAS case law and sport rules that may be relevant to their arguments.
The written submissions in the preliminary round will be evaluated by a selected panel of lawyers and CAS arbitrators. The successful teams will go through to regional rounds where the focus of the assessment will be on oral advocacy. The four winners of the regional rounds will progress to the semi-finals of the competition. At each stage of the competition, the party for the team asked to advocate will be assigned randomly, which may mean acting for the same party more than once.
In cooperation with CAS, the competition will use the prevailing Court of Arbitration for Sport’s (CAS/TAS) Code of Sports-related Arbitration (CAS Code).
Competition Timeline
- Registration Open: 30 September 2022
- Release of Moot Problem & Moot Rules: 10 November 2022
- Registration Closes: 15 December 2022
- Period for clarification questions: 1 November 2022 to 20 December 2022
- Written submission deadline: 8 January 2023
- Results of written submission judging announced to teams: 24 January 2023
- Semi-Finals For Regional Rounds (Online Oral Round): 4-11 February 2023
- Finals For Regional Rounds (Online Oral Round): 26th February 2023-4th March 2023
- Semi-Finals & Finals (In person): April 2023
The Semi-Finals and Finals will be held in person and the location and dates will be communicated in due course.
We will also be conducting training for written submissions and oral arguments for all participants, the dates for which shall be confirmed in due course.
Register here to enter a team.
To find out more information on how to participate and support this competition, visit the SLAM Competition page here.
Regional Classification
Participants will be divided into the following regional groups to ensure equality of opportunity to students across the world:
- Europe
- North, Central & South America
- Asia & Oceania
- Africa
Entry & Eligibility
The entry fee per team is £100.
Financial assistance - a team can qualify for financial assistance to enter the competition please email
Student status - Students cannot enter if they have been licensed to practice law in any jurisdiction at the time of registration. Students must be registered as a student (full or part time) in an accredited institution of higher learning at the time of registration.
Team Registration
Teams consist of two team members per team. Multiple teams from a single university can register for the competition.
To register your team, click here.
Prize
The winning team will receive a prize of £1,500 and the runners-up a prize of £1,000. All four finalists from the two teams will also receive tickets to LawInSport’s Annual Conference or Football Law Conference.
About SLAM
SLAM is a not-for-profit competition with the entry fees being used to fund the administrative and organisational costs (including travel assistance for finalists if needed) as well as the education of participants.
SLAM has been designed to make sports arbitration more inclusive and diverse, so that no matter where you are located or your financial circumstances you will be able to participate.
SLAM was founded in 2019 by SportLex - Sports Law Institute (Ljubljana, Slovenia) and supported by LawInSport since its conception. SLAM has been a LawInSport event since 2021.
Blaz Tomazin Bolcar, founder of SportLaw and co-founder of SLAM said: “It was great to see students competing in the SLAM 2022 event with a true passion for sports law. This is the very essence of the competition. I am happy to see SLAM developing into one of the best law moot competitions in the world.”
Sean Cottrell, CEO of LawInSport, added: “Last year’s competition was a privilege to organise and host. We were able to give students from around the world the opportunity to develop and showcase their ability in front of the world’s leading advocates and CAS arbitrators. This competition is a showcase for the next generation of lawyers with an interest in law in sport no matter where they are from or where they are studying.
The CAS arbitrators commented on the high quality of advocacy and we are looking forward to finding more brilliant students in this year’s competition.
I would encourage students to apply to be part of this year's competition as this truly is a rare and valuable opportunity to learn and develop relationships in the industry.”
Arbitrator Registration
If you are a CAS Arbitrator and would be interested in supporting this competition please complete the following registration form. We wish to ensure that we have enough Arbitrators to evaluate the written submissions, and we will need to fill at least 45 oral argument arbitrator positions.
The registration form seeks your interest in any of the phases of SLAM and your availability.
