What a moot competition actually is
A moot is an argued case that never happened. The organisers write a dispute, both sides of it are genuinely arguable, and every team in the world prepares the same one. Teams file written arguments first, then stand up and argue the case out loud in front of a panel of practising lawyers and arbitrators who interrupt with questions. Students argue for the investor in one hearing and for the state in the next, so nobody gets to prepare only the half they agree with.
The FDI Moot builds its case each year out of foreign direct investment law: what a country may do to a foreign investor's business, and what it owes when it does. The Addis Ababa team's own report says the round put complex legal arguments and questions of procedure to the participants, which is the part that separates teams once everyone has read the same materials.
How the African round ran
The Africa regional round was held online from 31 July to 2 August 2026. Regional rounds are where the field is cut: the organisers advance the top quarter of the teams in each region to the global rounds. Addis Ababa University came through the preliminary hearings, then the semi-final, then the final, and ended the round first among sub-Saharan African countries.
Next: Shenzhen
The Global Finals run from 23 to 27 October 2026 in Shenzhen, China, and bring together the teams that came through every regional round. The Addis Ababa University team is one of them.
Sources
Every figure and date above comes from one of these. Open them; a story about your child's school is worth checking.