For the first time a team from New Zealand has won the International Chamber of Commerce Mediation Competition.

The four students from the University of Auckland endured a challenging week involving complex problem-solving, to beat teams from 65 other universities and win the International Chamber of Commerce Mediation Competition in Paris. It is the first time a team from New Zealand has won the contest.

The group, comprising students Isabel Kelly, Isabelle Kwek, Jodie Llewellyn and Celia Brownlee, assisted by coaches Stephanie Panzic and Jean Yang, made it through seven rounds to compete in the finals of the world’s largest international commercial mediation competition.

The round eight problem, termed the ‘Octo-finals’, saw the Auckland team go head-to-head with students from York University in Canada, with both sides representing aquariums who had fallen out over a missing octopus.

The scenario, which was loosely modelled on the real-life case of Inky, an octopus who escaped from the National Aquarium of New Zealand in Napier, presented legal issues such as reputational damage and the loss of a critical business asset.

As first place winners, the students each receive ADR-ODR civil-commercial mediation training courses in London worth £10,000, four-week internships with the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution, free entries to the Prague Negotiation and Mediation Week, and an array of mediation books, subscriptions and resources.