Willem C. Vis Moot Court

29th Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot Court 2021/22

A Moot Court is a competition for legal educational purposes. The Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot Court, named after the world-recognized expert in international commercial transactions and dispute settlement procedures, Willem Cornelis Vis , revolves around a fictitious case ('the Problem') flowing from a transaction relating to the sale or purchase of goods under the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) and other uniform international commercial law (e.g. Unidroit Principles of International Commercial Contracts) that is to be settled by international commercial arbitration.

The purpose of the Vis Moot is to foster the study of international commercial law and arbitration and provide a practical training to students for resolving international business disputes. The business community’s marked preference for resolving international commercial disputes by arbitration is the reason this method of dispute resolution was selected as the clinical tool to train law students.

There are two crucial phases in the Vis Moot to train advocacy skills: the writing of memoranda for claimant and respondent and the presentation of arguments in oral hearings held before arbitration practitioners and academics in Hongkong (Vis East) and Vienna (due to the pandemic situation, the 27th and 28th version of the Vis Moot were held online).

The dispute is resolved in the context of an arbitration under specified Arbitration Rules. In the pairings of teams for each general round, every effort is made to have civil law schools argue against common law schools — so each may learn from approaches taken by persons trained in another legal culture. Similarly, the teams of arbitrators judging each round are from both common law and civil law backgrounds.

 

How do you benefit from the Vis Moot?

From the many benefits, here are just a few:

  • Fun and a unique experience
  • Highlight in your CV
  • Training for your oral examination(s): Intensive preparation for the oral rounds including language training and video-analysis
  • Great opportunity for networking with students, professors, lawyers and legal practitioners from all around the globe: 385 teams from 80 jurisdictions with 1,100 arbitrators and 2500+ students participated in the 28th Willem C. Vis Moot
  • The Cologne Vis Moot Tradition
  • In depth knowledge of international arbitration law or the CISG is not required!

 

When does the Vis Moot take place?

8 October 2021 (Distribution of the Problem)  – 14 April 2022 (Awards Ceremony)


Interested?

Then send your application via email to the Institute of Banking Law (luisa.gebauer@uni-koeln.de) including a cover letter (in English), your CV, a copy of your Abitur-certificate (or equivalent) and your transcript of records by 24 June 2021.

Introduction Meeting (in German) will take place on 10 June 2021, 6 p.m. via Zoom. 
If you are interested, please register in ILIAS (Willem C. Vis Moot course available at https://uni.koeln/SJDJ4) or send an email to luisa.gebauer@uni-koeln.de.

Contact: Luisa Gebauer (research fellow at the Centre for Transnational Law (CENTRAL) and Institute for Banking Law)

More information: https://www.vismoot.org