The Annual Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot is the largest international legal student competition that is held in Vienna (Austria) during the Easter holidays. Every year about 250 universities from 60 countries take part in the contest and more than 650 professional arbitrators, practicing lawyers and law professors assess their performance. In the 16th Moot, about 1300 students participated in preparation of written memoranda and in oral hearings in Vienna.
The Moot represents a model arbitration dispute between several companies located in different countries, arising out of the contract for the international sale of goods, governed by the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods of 1980. The arbitration is conducted in accordance with the arbitration clause set forth in the contract, arbitration rules of procedure agreed by the parties, and the UNICITRAL model law on international commercial arbitration of 1985.
At the 17th Moot (2010) the subject-matter of the dispute is the avoidance of a contract for the sales of pumps and the reimbursement of damages which resulted from this avoidance. The buyer (claimant) tries to prove that the seller should have supplied the pumps that met the regulations of country where the pumps were to be used and that the seller did not meet the delivery date fixed in the contract. The seller (respondent) denies his obligation to comply with the regulations adopted after the date of the conclusion of the contract and invokes force-majeure to justify the delay in the delivery of goods. The parties agreed that the dispute would be solved under arbitration rules of the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration. However the respondent also disputes the jurisdiction of the Arbitral Tribunal.
The aim of the participants of this competition is to prepare written memoranda for the claimant and for the respondent in support of their legal position as well as to represent the parties in the oral proceedings of the arbitration. The following awards are raffled off in the Moot:
- Pieter Sanders Prize for the best written memorandum for claimant;
- Werner Melis Prize for the best written memorandum for respondent;
- Martin Domke Prize to the best speaking counselor (is bestowed to the participant who received the highest average of points for the oral hearings);
- Frédéric Eisemann Prize to the team that prevails in the final round of the moot.
The Moot organizers are Pace University (New York), Queen Mary University (London), Stockholm University, University of Vienna, Austrian Arbitration Association, Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, Moot Alumni Association, and the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). The sponsors of the Moot are the prominent international and regional arbitrational institutions, such as International Chamber of Commerce, London Court of International Arbitration, International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, American Arbitration Association and others.
