News
2003

ICC Court hosted practice moot

Each year teams of law students from all over the world head for Vienna, in Austria, for the annual Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot. Their journey is the culmination of a contest in which they are required to act as counsel in a fictitious commercial dispute between parties from different countries. The moot is designed to test the teams’ skills in drafting memoranda and oral advocacy.

Eight of the teams heading for Vienna this year met in Paris on 7-8 April for a practice run prior to the real event. Seventy students from Australia, France and Germany were be put through their paces by leading practitioners and senior ICC staff at the home of the ICC International Court of Arbitration, one of the major sponsors of the Vis moot.

‘It is important for the future of international arbitration that students are given the opportunity to develop their skills by practising what they have learned,’ remarked Anne Marie Whitesell, Secretary General of the ICC International Court of Arbitration. ‘The moot is one of the many educational activities to which the ICC Court gives it support.’

According to Matthew Secomb, Counsel at the Secretariat of the ICC Court and a member of the winning team at Vienna in 1998, the Vis moot is a unique opportunity for law students to encounter legal traditions other than their own. ‘The Vis moot shows the cultural diversity of international arbitration and the need for practitioners to embrace a wide spectrum of legal systems,’ said Mr Secomb.

With 126 teams in competition at Vienna, the contest is a unique showcase and reflects the active interest in international arbitration across the world.