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Vis Moot at LSE Law

Welcome to the home page of the LSE Team for Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot! The Vis Moot, which involves problems of international arbitration and international contracts, is one of the most exciting pedagogical and practical experiences that law students can have during their studies. The LSE Team is coached by former participants and is supervised by Dr Paul MacMahon

31st Vis Moot (2023/24)

Team Members:
Oscar Sarazin, Lariana Sandulescu, Elmasharaf Mukhtar, Samuel Lo, Sveva Galzerano, and Rory Brooks.

Coaches:
Julian Ranetunge, Tara Lengersdorf, Evgeni Kostevitch, and Tian Bokal Šter.

Awards:
- Eric E. Bergsten Award (Team Orals) - Honourable Mention
- Honourable Mention for the Claimant's Memorandum in Vis East
- Qualification to the Round of 32 in Vienna

30th Vis Moot (2022/23)

Team Members:
Vsevolod Martseniuk, Zijing Xu, Evgeni Kostevitch, Derek Qu, Yuxin Tian, Oliver Mugambi

Coaches:
Ruihan Liu, Julian Ranetunge, Tara Lengersdorf, Janusch Krasberg

Awards:
Eric E. Bergsten Award (Team Orals) - Honourable Mention


Qualification to the final round of 64

29th Vis Moot (2021/22)

Team Members:
Caryn Chiah Ka-May, Julius Chen Ma, Nhan Pham-Thanh, Ryan Henry Ho, Willem de Vries, Xinyi Gao

Coaches:
Ruihan Liu, Julian Ranetunge, Georgie Dibbo

Awards:
Eric E. Bergsten Award (Team Orals) - Honourable Mention
Martin Domke Award For Best Individual Oralist - Honourable Mention for Willem de Vries Honourable Mention for the Respondent's Memorandum in Vis East

Qualification to the final round of 32

28th Vis Moot (2020/21)

Team Members:
Weiran Liu, Sophie Low, Sze Hian Ng, Yan Chuan Ng, Jiayue Ma, Qing Tang

Coaches:
Ruihan Liu, Shaurya Upadhyay, Johannes Jiang

Awards:
Eric E. Bergsten Award (Team Orals) - Honourable Mention

Qualification to the final round of 8.

27th Vis Moot (2019/20)

Team Members
Diana Stoean, Jacob Mills, Jason J Lin, Su Nahmias, Warren Lampson Suen, Wui Long Wong

Coaches:
Shaurya Upadhyay, Elliott Couper, Aarya Dixit

Awards: 
Pieter Sanders Award For Claimant Memorandum - Winning Team

Werner Melis Award for Respondent Memorandum - Honourable Mention

26th Vis Moot (2018/19)

Team Members
John Chedid, Aarya Dixit, Maroš Hodor, Johannes Jiang, Wui Long Wong, Liyuan Yu

Coaches:
Dharshini Prasad, Elliott Couper, Shaurya Upadhyay

Awards
Pieter Sanders Award for Claimant Memorandum - Honourable Mention

Werner Melis Award for Respondent Memorandum - Honourable Mention

The 25th Moot (2017/18)

Team Members:
Evanthia Kasiora, Nishtha Agarwal, Shaurya Upadhyay, Shun Him Yau

Coaches: 
Dharshini Prasad, Kotryna Kerpauskaite

Achievements: 

The team ranked 9th out of 357 teams at the competition. 

Eric E. Bergsten Award for Team Oral Arguments - Honourable Mention

Werner Melis Award for Respondent Memorandum - Honourable Mention

Martin Domke Award for Best Oralist - Second place - Evanthia Kasiora; Honourable Mention - Shun Him Yau

The 24th Moot (2016/17)

Team Members:
Antonin Sobek, Danni Chu, Ellen Herinckx, Ruihan Liu, Nicole Tan

Coaches:
Dharshini Prasad, Lee Jin Yi Mark

Achievements:

Werner Melis Award for Respondent Memorandum - Honourable Mention

Pieter Sanders Award for Claimant Memorandum - Honourable Mention

The 22nd Moot (2014/15)

Team Members: 
Lee Jin Yi Mark, Lee Ka Chun Steven, Maria della Porta Rodiani, Rohit Pisal, Seraphina Chew Shujun, Tan Yuen Yuen

Coaches: 
Velimir Zivkovic, David Vitale, Jonathan Lim

Achievements:

Qualification to the final rounds of 64

Honourable Mentions for Ms. Tan Yuen Yuen and Mr. Lee Jin Yi Mark as Individual Oralists.

Team Honourable Mention for Respondent Memorandum.

Team Honourable Mention for reaching final rounds.

The 21th Moot (2013/14)

Team Members: 
Stanislav Bojnansky, Vincent Chan, Cherry Chong, Aleksandr Frolov, Angel Li, Marco Wong

Coaches: 
Velimir Zivkovic, Erin Eckhoff

Achievements:

Qualification to the final rounds of 32

Honourable Mention for Ms. Cherry Chong as an Individual Oralist.

The 19th Moot (2011/12)

Team Members: 
Christina Dykun, Effrosyni Christofilou, Gülce Gürler, Ingram Cheung, Man-Kit Chau, Pieter De Smedt, Seán O'Dea, Sonja Pavic, Yi-Jun Kang

Coaches: 
Aashni Dalal, Manuel Penadés Fons, Ugljesa Grusic

Achievements:

Qualification to the final rounds of 32

Honourable Mention for the Memorandum for Claimant

Honourable Mention for the Memorandum for Respondent

Honourable Mention for Ms. Sonia Pavic as an Individual Oralist

The 18th Moot (2010/11)

Team members: 
Adil Khalid Tirmizey, Bartholomäus Regenhardt, Claire Cregan, Erik Lindemann, Suzana Boncina, Yi-Jun Kang

Coaches: 
Aashni Dalal, Natalie Schober, Ugljesa Grusic

Achievements:

Honourable Mention for the Memorandum for Respondent

The 17th Moot (2009/10)

Team members: 
Aashni Dalal, José R. Pereyó Dueño, Nausheen Rahman, Michaela Zhirova

Coaches: 
Ugljesa Grusic, Larissa Louza

Achievements:

Qualification to the final rounds of 32

Honourable Mention for the Memorandum for Claimant

Second-best Individual Oralist of the Competition for Ms. Aashni Dalal

The 16th Moot (2008/09)

Team Members: 
Johannes Kater, Kira Krissinel, Sara Nadeau-Séguin, Manuel Penadés Fons and Mumuksha Singh

Coach: 
Annabelle Möckesch

Achievements:

13th place out of 228 teams in the general rounds and qualification to the final rounds of 32

Honourable Mention for the Memorandum for Claimant

Honourable Mention for Ms. Sara-Nadeau Séguin as an Individual Oralist

 

The Competition

The Willem C. Vis Moot is today the largest and the most prestigious competition of its kind, with around 250 participating teams from more than 50 countries. It is organized by the Association for the Organization and Promotion of the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot, and sponsored by organizations such as the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), American Arbitration Association (AAA), German Institution of Arbitration (DIS), Swiss Arbitration Association and China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission. The Moot is described by its organizers as follows:

"The goal of the Vis Arbitral Moot is to foster the study of international commercial law and arbitration for resolution of international business disputes through its application to a concrete problem of a client and to train law leaders of tomorrow in methods of alternative dispute resolution.

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 through two crucial phases: the writing of memoranda for claimant and respondent, and the hearing of oral arguments based on the memoranda – both settled by arbitral experts in the issues considered. The forensic and written exercises require determining questions of contract – 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 and other uniform international commercial law – in the context of an arbitration of a dispute under specified Arbitration Rules.

In the pairings of teams for each general round of the forensic and written exercises, 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.”

LSE students participating in this competition receive a unique opportunity to test their skills and knowledge in an international environment of excellent quality. During the first stage, the team analyses this year’s Moot problem and drafts the memoranda for claimant and respondent. The second stage consists of the pleading of oral arguments based on the memoranda at the Moot’s general rounds in Vienna in April. In four preliminary rounds two students from each team plead either the position of the claimant or that of the respondent. 64 teams qualify for the final rounds. A jury awards prizes to individual team members for the best pleading-performance. As a preparation for the oral pleadings, the LSE-team also participates in various “pre-moots” both in London and abroad. 

Links:

The Willem C. Vis Moot official website

The Vis Moot page on Wikipedia


Contacts:

Dr Paul MacMahon: p.h.macmahon@lse.ac.uk