The 5th Edition of the international Sports Law Arbitration Moot (SLAM) 2024 Grand Final will take place on 12 - 13 April 2024 at the Court of Arbtration for Sport, Lausanne, Switzerland. 

The final round and award ceremony are held at the end of a special sports law conference for competitors and leading lawyers, academics and exectuives from the sports world. 

The SLAM is a world class competition, with the aim to promote greater knowledge of the values and rules of international sports arbitration, the go to dispute resolution mechanism in the sector.  

SLAM provides students from around the world the opportunity to:

1. Develop and showcase their legal and advocacy skills before the world’s leading arbitrators and practitioners virtually and in-person;
2. Gain real world experience of international sports arbitration under the leading procedural rules;
3. Receive training on writing submissions and advocacy from some of the world’s leading advocates and arbitrators in world sport.

The competition is open to all current students. 

SLAM is organised by LawInSport, the world’s leading sports law knowledge hub and global community.

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. Teams will also be arguing these real-world disputes at the hallowed halls of the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland.

In the qualification round written submissions and oral advocacy 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 solely on oral advocacy.

The winners of the regional rounds will progress to the quarter-finals of the competition, where on all rounds will be held in person at the offices of CAS in Lausanne, Switzerland. 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 uses the prevailing Court of Arbitration for Sport’s (CAS/TAS) Code of Sports-related Arbitration (CAS Code).

Please note registrations open on 1 August 2023 and close on 1 December 2023.

All the judges have extensive experience as either arbitrators at the Court of Arbitration for Sport and other arbitral bodies, or they are experienced advocates in sports dispute resolution and at CAS.  The judges from the quarter-final rounds onwards are all experienced CAS arbitrators. 

We would like to thank our judges for their overwhelming support and for giving-up their time freely to help the next generation of sports lawyers realise their potential.

Teams consist of two team members per team. Register your team.  Registrations open on 1 August 2023 and close on 1 December 2023. 

Multiple teams from a single university can register for the competition.

The entry fee per team is £100.

Financial assistance - a  team can qualify for financial assistance to enter the competition please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to see if you are eligible for financial support. The forms of financial assistance that will be provided are waiver of the costs of the entry fee (whether in part or in full) or a reasonable contribution towards the cost of travelling (limited to flights/trains and accommodation) to the in-person semi-finals and finals of the competition for teams that qualify for these stages limited to an amount of £500 per team. 

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.

The SLAM 2024 Grand Final is held at the  12 - 13 April 2024 at the Court of Arbtration for Sport, Lausanne, Switzerland. 

The final round and award ceremony are held at the end of a special sports law conference for competitors and leading lawyers, academics and exectuives from the sports world. 

1. All teams that entered had the opportunity to attend training from experienced arbitrators and advocates on:

   1. Writting submission
   2. Oral advocacy

2. The 2nd placed team will receive £1,000 prize money + tickets to LawInSport's Annual Conference or Football Law Conference.

3. The winners of SLAM will receive £1,500 prize money + tickets to LawInSport's Annual Conference or Football Law Conference.

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.

Grand Finals Venue Host

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2023 Winners Prize & Inclusion Sponsors

ASD Law

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JAMS

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Supporters

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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 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, Co-Founder 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.” 

Over the last few year's SLAM was a huge success with:

• 120 teams enter from 20+ countries
• 80 Teams attend written submission and oral advocacy training session
• 30 CAS Arbitrators & 40 advocates, from 20 countries, judged the written submissions. 23 CAS arbitrators judged the oral rounds (which were all judged solely by CAS arbitrators)

For more information on how to participate and support SLAM email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

SLAM is organised by:

• Sean Cottrell, CEO & Co-Founder, LawInSport
• Manan Agrawal, Editor, LawInSport
• Blaz Tomazin Bolcar, founder of SportLaw and co-founder of SLAM
• Jeffrey Benz, Attorney, Barrister, Arbitrator, Mediator, JAMS/4 New Square Chambers/Court of Arbitration for Sport

All organisers and judges give up their time freely and do not receive any financial remmuneration from their roles in the Sports Law Arbitration Moot (SLAM).