Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot
The Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration
Moot is the largest international event anywhere for law students that takes
place at a single time and place. See <http://cisgw3.law.pace.edu/vis.html> for detailed information
on the Moot.
The week-long oral rounds of the Moot are held annually
in Vienna, Austria, the situs of the headquarters of the United Nations Commission on International
Trade Law (UNCITRAL).
The annual “Moot week” begins with a “Welcome Reception”
organized by the Moot Alumni Association (MAA). The following day, the MAA
sponsors a seminar on a topic of interest to law students, team coaches and persons
who will serve as arbitrators. That evening, all participating law students,
team coaches, persons who will serve as arbitrators, and representatives of the
sponsors
and hosts are invited to attend the Moot Opening Ceremony and Reception. During
the next four days, each law school team moots twice as Claimant and twice as Respondent.
During a mooting session, each team has two oralists and the pair of teams
moots before a panel of three arbitrators. To enhance the multi-cultural
aspects of the Moot experience, each panel of three arbitrators is composed of
at least one member who is from a civil law system jurisdiction and one member
who is from a common law system jurisdiction. During the two days, the
thirty-two top-scoring law school teams in the general round engage in a single
elimination tournament. The final oral argument by the two best teams is
followed by an awards banquet attended by many of the student participants,
team coaches and the persons who served as arbitrators, sponsors and hosts. The
banquet concludes with the announcements and presentations of the awards to the
best oral teams, the best individual oralists, the teams that submitted the
best memorandum for the claimant and the best memorandum for the respondent, as
well as runners-up and those which receive honorable mention in all four categories. In
addition, each law student who participates receives a certificate of participation
inscribed with her/his complete name.
On the first Friday of October, the Problem that is to be
the subject matter of the Moot is distributed to requesting law schools.
Registration by the participating law schools closes on a specified
date at the beginning of December. By a specified date during the second week
of December, each team must submit its Memorandum in Support of Claimant’s
Position. Thereafter, each team receives the Memorandum in Support of
Claimant’s Position of a team against which it will moot. On a specified date
during the beginning of February it is required to submit its
Statement in Support of Respondent’s Position.
This year, the eleventh annual Moot, a team from each of one hundred thirty-six law schools based in forty-two countries and regions participated in Vienna. There were two hundred seventy-two mooting sessions in the 2004 Moot General Rounds. Three hundred seventy-four arbitrators, lawyers, professors and other qualified persons from throughout the world and of different legal systems served members of the three-member panels of arbitrators in the 2004 Moot General Rounds.
As a final component of their preparation, some teams privately organize and
engage in one or more pre-Moot mini-moots. Some of the mini-moots are held
among geographically neighboring law schools (e.g., Pace University Law School, Syracuse University Law School,
and Cornell University Law School at Syracuse) and some of the mini-moots are
international in composition (e.g.,
University of Basel, Columbia University Law School, Fordham University Law
School, Harvard Law School, University of Ottawa and Pace University Law School
at Harvard, the University of Cologne, Carlos III of Madrid University Queen
Mary of University of London at Queen Mary in London, and the University of
Basel, the University of Florida, Stetson University College of Law and the
University of Zagreb are at Stetson). Other mini-moots are held in various
locations around the world including Chicago, Canada, Germany, Switzerland and
the United Kingdom. Participation in a mini-moot further enhances the
international and multi-cultural aspects of the Moot experience.
Moot Rule Number 1 has always been that, while all
aspects of the Moot must be conducted at the highest level of professional
quality and ethics, “the Moot must be fun.” Accordingly, there are a great many
social activities in Vienna during “Moot week”, including receptions hosted by
law firms in Vienna, a nightly rendez-vous
in a Viennese jazz bar, a final night MAA-organized bash, and an ad hoc post-Awards Banquet farewell get
together. In addition, one evening there is an dinner in a typical vintner's
tavern ("Heurigen") in the outskirts of Vienna attended by
many of the persons who serve as arbitrators.
Arbitrators, lawyers and other professionals who serve as
members of the three-member Moot arbitration panels are enthusiastic. Each
year, more and more of them return to participate in the Moot of the following
year.
The Moot draws such a large number of luminaries and
other members of the international commercial arbitration world-wide community
that international commercial arbitration conferences are being planned and
scheduled to coincide with it.
This year is the eleventh annual Moot. In the aggregate,
approximately four thousand law students will have participated in the Moot.
They are now members of an ever expanding world-wide network of lawyers
familiar with the CISG and international commercial arbitration. This network
is facilitating the representation of clients. Young Moot alumni
lawyers practicing with multi-national law firms have successfully represented
the clients of their firm with a Moot alumnus on the other side.
The sponsors of the Moot include the Who’s Who of
international commercial arbitration.
- American Arbitration Association
- International Arbitral Centre of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber
- Chartered Institute of Arbitrators
- Chicago International Dispute Resolution Association
- German Institution of Arbitration (DIS)
- International Chamber of Commerce
- London Court of International Arbitration
- Singapore International Arbitration Centre
- Swiss Arbitration Association (ASA), Swiss Chambers' Arbitration
- United Nations Commission on International Trade Law
- Moot Alumni Association
The hosting academic institutions are:
- Pace University School of Law
- University of Vienna Faculty of Law
This year, because of the popularity of the Moot, a
three-day Hong Kong “Moot (East)” was organized by persons and entities in the
region. A team from fourteen law schools in eight countries and regions
participated in this event which was held prior to the Moot in Vienna.
Supporters of the Moot (East) include the Hong Kong International Arbitration
Centre, Pace University, the International Chamber of Commerce International
Court of Arbitration, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law
(UNCITRAL), The Law Association for Asia and the Pacific (LAWASIA), China
International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC), and Sweet &
Maxwell (Asia).
For his achievements as Administrator of the Moot,
Professor Dr. Eric E. Bergsten, former Secretary of UNCITRAL (1985 – 1991), has
received the Special Commendation from the Section of
Dispute Resolution of the American Bar Association (2003), Award for
Distinction in International Law and Affairs from the International Law and
Practice Section of the New York State Bar Association (2003) and the Silver
Medal of the City of Vienna (2004).
The Moot was suggested by Michael L. Sher, a member of
the bars of the State of New York and the District of Columbia, during his
address the from the main podium of the General Assembly hall of the United
Nations at United Nations headquarters in New York when speaking
at the invitation of UNCITRAL as a “Voice of International Practice” during the
Silver Anniversary Congress of UNCITRAL. The Moot was proposed by Mr. Sher as
a means to promote the knowledge of the work of UNCITRAL among
interested law students and, more specifically, of the CISG. An expected useful
by-product was to be and has been an increase in the global awareness and
utilization of international commercial arbitration as a means of dispute resolution.
The Moot was named in memory of Willem Cornelius Vis who was Secretary
of UNCITRAL (1975 – 1980) and the initial Director of the Pace University
School of Law Institute of International Commercial Law from inception in 1991
until his death in 1993.
