Created by IE Law School, Comparative Law in Action (CLIA) is the first competition of its kind. The challenge involves participants working on an interactive multimedia case in a largely virtual environment. It is meant to reflect the methods of future legal teams, teaching participants to apply a comparative legal mindset to reach innovative and all-encompassing solutions.
The challenge requires you to develop and employ every legal skill at your disposal, including effective public speaking, analyzing diverse areas of law and drafting highly professional legal reports.
The second edition of the CLIA challenge took place in Madrid between May 6-8, 2022. It involved the participation of IE Law school and other universities from across the globe. These included Sciences Po, Maastricht University, Bucerius Law School, FGV Direito Rio, The University of Edinburgh, Università Bocconi and Tilburg University.
We asked one of the participants, Isabela Uribe Castano, to tell us more about her experience.
Isabela, what is Comparative Law in Action? What did this year’s case entail?
The challenge was centered on a multimedia case, where students had the chance to work interactively throughout the semester and later present their findings during an experiential weekend.
It entailed delivering a memorandum and then carrying out oral presentations acting as if we were legal consultants for “Love Now,” a fictional, international social media dating app company.
This year’s case was centered on current hot topics and issues arising from technology such as data privacy, right of publicity, impersonation, cybersecurity and more.
What have you learned from this experience and what makes it so unique?
By blending technology and using innovative platforms like Canva, the challenge plays out through an interactive hybrid method portraying today’s reality in which the virtual and nonvirtual are part of our everyday lives.
Unlike other moot courts, the CLIA competition is unique because students act as legal consultants to a company dealing with issues arising from technology.
The case and competition encouraged us to be proactive researchers, analyze current issues with a globally-minded perspective and work as part of a team.
How did you and your team overcome the challenges presented by the competition?
Overcoming the challenges as a team was largely down to planning and being able to adapt to different scenarios or situations.
We found that keeping up-to-date by reading and researching new case law was crucial to developing our answers.
Why do you think studying and practicing comparative law is important?
Studying Comparative Law allows you to gain hard and soft skills necessary for today’s increasingly digital, global world.
Most systems share similar issues, so understanding different cases allows for problem-solving on many levels.
As a lawyer, practicing comparative law helps to identify the best option or approach for a client in the development of their business or preparation of cases.
Multi-jurisdictional problems are not uncommon nowadays and laws are still contradictory in many cases, so having the skills inherent to comparative law is necessary in practice and desired by employers and businesses in general.
Briefly describe the Comparative Law in Action experiential weekend.
The participating universities joined us in Madrid for an amazing weekend full of activities and surprises! It started on Friday with an inauguration cocktail at the IE Tower, where we had the chance to meet the other teams.
On Saturday morning, Erika Concetta Pagano—head of Legal Innovation and Design at Simmons & Simmons—gave us an insightful seminar on presentation skills, legal design and legal engineering.
After team practice and lunch, round one of the oral rounds started in which the teams made their presentations in front of a panel of judges, acting as legal consultants for the dating app.
The teams that made it to the second oral round and the finalists were announced over dinner, where we had the chance to network with other participants.
The weekend culminated with the final competition on Sunday morning, followed by the award ceremony where different prizes were given including best orator, best-written memorandum and more.
Do you have any advice for future participants interested in the competition?
I highly recommend and encourage students to participate in next year’s challenge.
My tips are: stay intellectually curious! Researching and staying up-to-date is a must! Be committed and dedicated to working hard—regardless of whether it’s individual or teamwork. And, finally, have fun while learning in order to make the most out of your experience!
CLIA offers a unique opportunity for ambitious, forward-thinking law students. By competing, you will master the immersive and innovative methodologies required to confront today’s tech-driven global and legal challenges. Make sure to sign up for the next edition!