A team from South Texas College of Law has won the this year’s ICC International Commercial Mediation Competition in Paris, on February 8, 2012. A total of 66 teams from 32 countries participated in the competition, which included teams from Brazil, Singapore, the U.S., and Australia. Find the ICC press release here. Join us in congratulating the South Texas College of Law team!

As NPR reports, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (“CAS” ) suspended Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador after rejecting his claim hat his positive test for clenbuterol was caused by eating contaminated meat while winning his third Tour de France title. Find the NPR article here and our previous post about this case here.

The Medina Valley Independent School District (“ISD”) reached a mediated settlement agreement (“MSA”) with an agnostic family that argued that traditions at the Medina Valley ISD excluded their son’s beliefs. See Schultz v. Medina Valley Indep. Sch. Dist. No. SA-11-CA-422-FB, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 126969 (W.D. Tex. Nov. 2, 2011). The issue in the case was whether the Constitution allows for a governmental body (the Medina Valley ISD) to promote and use tax dollars for the establishment of particular religious beliefs. Both sides invoked the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. U.S. District Judge Fred Biery approved the MSA on February 9, 2012. Under the MSA, the Medina Valley ISD won’t officially make prayer part of graduation ceremonies. The MSA does not, however, prohibit valedictorians or other student speakers from praying. Those moments must be introduced as “student remarks.” The MSA was accompanied by a personal statement by Judge Biery in which he thanks the U.S. Marshal Service and local police for their heightened security during the course of the case. Judge Biery also said that he forgives “those Christians who have venomously and vomitously cursed the Court family and threatened bodily harm and assassination.” The MSA Order can be downloaded here. Appendix I (the MSA) is here and Appendix II (Separation of Church and State) is here.

Professor S.I. Strong (contributor of this blog) has published recently yet another interesting article, “International Arbitration and the Republic of Colombia: Commercial, Comparative and Constitutional Concerns From a U.S. Perspective.” The article appears in 22 Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law 47 (2011). Here is the abstract: Although the Republic of Colombia is one of Latin America’ economic powerhouses, with a free trade agreement with the United States on the brink of ratification by Congress, U.S. corporate actors know extremely little about Colombia’ approach to international commercial arbitration, even though arbitration is commonly agreed to be the preferred method of resolving cross-border business disputes. The scarcity of information on this issue puts U.S. companies at a distinct disadvantage when negotiating with Colombian parties and places the entire dispute resolution process – and thus the economic benefit of the transaction – at risk. This Article undertakes the first comparative analysis of Colombian arbitration law in English, setting Colombian statutory and case law side by side with international and U.S. law to provide U.S. parties with the information they need to (1) evaluate the risks and benefits associated with entering into an arbitration agreement with a Colombian party and (2) establish the kinds of procedures needed to provide optimal protection of the arbitral process and any resulting award. Not only does this research discuss important comparative and commercial matters, it also considers how a unique type of constitutional challenge – the acción de tutela – affects arbitration law in Colombia. The article is available for download (at no cost) here.