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AVS Moot Rules 2024 · Procedural Reference

Procedure is where the award is decided.

Speed, enforceability, and discretion are not features of a panel — they are outputs of a procedural timetable. The AVS Moot Rules 2024 translate eleven years of aviation casework into a counsel-ready choreography: fixed tracks, fixed clocks, and a documented evidence chain that holds up at the New York and Singapore Conventions.

The pages below are written so a general counsel can confirm fit in the time it takes to brief a partner.

Submit Your Dispute Review the Three Tracks

All submissions are reviewed under the AVS Moot confidentiality protocol. No matter file is opened without a countersigned intake memorandum.

Cockpit instruments at golden hour, documentary treatment Procedural discipline begins on the ground, before any witness is sworn.

Rules Overview

What the AVS Moot Rules actually say, in the language of a matter intake memo.

The Rules 2024 are a 94-article instrument adopted by the Chamber's partners in November 2023, in force since 1 January 2024 for every matter filed after that date. They are written to be read once, not parsed twice. The defaults below can be displaced by party agreement in the arbitration agreement; if your contract already specifies a track, that specification controls.

Scope
The Rules apply to any dispute referred to AVS Moot Chamber, whether by agreement of the parties, by operation of a contract clause, or by unilateral request admitted by the Registrar under Article 3(2).
Governing Law (Default)
The substantive law of the seat chosen by the parties; absent a choice, the law of the jurisdiction with the closest nexus to the underlying transaction — typically the place of registration of the aircraft, the place of performance of the MRO contract, or the lex loci delicti for ground damage matters.
Language
English by default. Arabic is a co-equal working language for matters seated in Riyadh or where at least one party is a GCC-registered entity. Other languages are admissible on application; interpretation and translation costs are borne by the requesting party unless the tribunal orders otherwise.
Seat Options
Dublin, Singapore, Riyadh, Geneva, New York, or any other seat agreed in writing. The seat governs procedural law and the courts with supervisory jurisdiction; hearings may be held anywhere operationally convenient.
Confidentiality
The existence of the arbitration, the identity of the parties, the identity of the adjudicators, and the contents of the award are confidential by default and may be disclosed only with the Registrar's written consent or where compelled by a competent court. Enforcement filings in New York and Singapore Convention jurisdictions are carved out.
Adjudicator Appointment
Sole arbitrator by default for matters under USD 2 million; three-member tribunal above that threshold. Parties may agree otherwise in writing. The Registrar appoints any member not named by the parties within twenty-one days of the matter opening.

Three Procedural Tracks

Each track is a fixed timetable and a fixed cost ceiling — not a target.

Counsel self-selects the track at intake. Once a matter is registered, the timetable governs absent a documented exceptional circumstance under Article 14 (force majeure, agreed settlement window, or non-availability of an essential adjudicator).

  1. 01

    Standard Track

    Articles 17–28 · Median award in 11 weeks

    The default track for matters above USD 500,000. A three-member tribunal is constituted within fourteen days of the Answer to the Request; the first procedural order issues within seven days of constitution. Document exchange is conducted in two rounds through the certified evidence vault; a hearing of necessity is scheduled within forty-five days unless the parties waive it in writing.

    • Median binding award11 weeks
    • Cost ceiling adherence92% of matters
    • Zero unbilled hours78% of matters
  2. 02

    Fast Track

    Articles 29–34 · Capped at 14 calendar days

    A fixed-fee track for disputes under USD 500,000 — warranty disagreements, narrow maintenance liability, single-issue redelivery disputes, and small cargo claims. A sole arbitrator is appointed within seventy-two hours; the procedural calendar runs to a hard fourteen-day cap from filing to award, with no hearing unless the arbitrator certifies one as essential.

    • Maximum timeline14 days
    • ThresholdUnder USD 500K
    • Fee structureFixed
  3. 03

    Expedited Track

    Articles 35–41 · Median award in 6 weeks

    A discretionary track for matters above USD 500,000 where urgency, asset preservation, or the risk of cross-border enforcement displacement makes the Standard timetable unworkable. The Registrar admits matters on a documented urgency showing; document exchange is collapsed to a single round and the hearing window is halved.

    • Median binding award6 weeks
    • TribunalSole or three-member
    • Document exchangeSingle round

Track selection is final once the matter is registered. Re-routing between tracks requires a documented application under Article 14 and the Registrar's written consent.

Hangar interior with a digital evidence terminal at golden hour

Evidence Vault

The evidence chain is the award, in advance.

Aviation matters are won and lost on records — maintenance logs, FDR/CVR data, lessor redelivery condition reports, MRO acceptance certificates, and warranty correspondence. The AVS Moot evidence vault holds every submission under an ISO 27001-certified information security management system, with a chain-of-custody audit trail compatible with ICAO Annex 19 safety reporting protocols.

  • Certification ISO/IEC 27001:2022
  • Audit trail ICAO Annex 19 compatible
  • Encryption AES-256 at rest, TLS 1.3 in transit
  • Retention Ten years post-award, party-controlled
  • Access Counsel-only by default; expert access logged
  • Export Court-ready bundles in 48 hours
Request Vault Documentation

Enforcement & Timetable Performance

The numbers counsel will cite when reporting the dispute resolution strategy internally.

94% Enforcement rate at the New York and Singapore Conventions across 1,820+ resolved disputes.
11wk Median binding award under the Standard Track, against an 18-month industry baseline.
97.2% Of matters closed within the original procedural timetable in 2024 — no overrun, no re-routing.
100% Procedural compliance record with the New York, Geneva, and Cape Town Conventions, maintained since 2014.

Source: AVS Moot Chamber, Annual Procedural Report 2024. Figures independently verified by the Chamber's external auditor and reproduced in the 2024 Chambers Aviation Litigation Guide.

Procedural Questions

Procedural questions we hear most from aviation counsel at intake.

If the question below is not the one you have on file, the Registrar will respond to a written enquiry within one business day.

  1. How is the adjudicator appointed, and can we challenge an unsuitable panel member?

    Parties nominate in the arbitration agreement or within twenty-one days of the matter opening. The Registrar fills any vacancy. Challenges are decided under Article 12 within seven days of filing; an adjudicator is displaceable only on documented grounds of independence or qualification mismatch. Our panel of 47 — including 9 former civil aviation authority chiefs and 6 retired IATA counsel — is curated so that the right specialist is already available for most aviation matter types.

  2. Can we obtain interim measures — asset freezes, anti-suit injunctions, preservation orders — without leaving the arbitration?

    Yes. Under Article 26, a tribunal may grant any interim measure it considers just, including orders binding third parties in possession of an aircraft or its records. Where court enforcement is required, the Registrar maintains standing instructions with supervisory courts in Dublin, Singapore, Riyadh, Geneva, and New York; an interim measure can typically be domesticated within seventy-two hours of issuance.

  3. Can insurers, lessors, or MROs be joined to a matter already in progress?

    Article 24 permits joinder on the written consent of all existing parties and the proposed additional party, provided the additional party's interests are materially affected and the timetable permits. Subrogation claims by aviation insurers are the most common use case; lessor joinder is routine in redelivery matters. Joinder does not restart the procedural clock absent an explicit Registrar order.

  4. What happens to the confidentiality of the arbitration when we need to enforce the award?

    The award itself becomes a public record at the moment of enforcement filing in a Convention jurisdiction — there is no confidentiality workaround for that. Everything before the award (briefs, evidence, transcripts, correspondence) remains confidential under Article 22 indefinitely. Enforcement strategy is coordinated with counsel to minimize the public record; counsel may request redaction of commercially sensitive passages before any filing is lodged.

Submit Your Dispute Review Enforcement Record