Mooting 2011/12

Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot

The 2011/12 Vis Moot   |   Sponsors   |   Past Achievements   |   The Competition   |   Links

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 Law Department is very happy to see the growing success of its teams (see Past Achievements), which is partially also due to the kind support of our sponsors (see Sponsors). The LSE Team is coached by former participants and is supervised by Dr Jan Kleinheisterkamp.

 

The 2011/12 Vis Moot

The Problem

This year’s problem leads the LSE Team to tackle the issues of arbitrators’ independence and impartiality, the arbitrability of matters involving corruption, as well as a number of questions relating to the international sale of goods such as the scope of force majeure and damages.

 

The Team Members

Christina Dykun is currently in her penultimate year of the Juris Doctor degree. She completed the first year of the JD law degree at the University of Ottawa, and was granted a letter of permission to study at LSE. She has previously graduated from the University of Toronto with high distinction, earning both an Honours Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts degree. In her first year of law, she was nominated and elected as an Executive Member of the Business Law Society, selected to be an Assistant Editor of the Ottawa Law Review, and was involved in competitive mooting. Her keen interest in dispute resolution was catalyzed by her JD coursework in ADR, and was substantially furthered during a summer student position in one of Toronto’s premiere litigation firms.

Effrosyni Christofilou is currently pursuing the LL.M. with specialism in International Business Laws at the LSE. She graduated with distinction from the Law School of the National University of Athens and has worked as a trainee lawyer in Athens dealing with Commercial and White-Collar Criminal Law. During her studies, she was an Amnesty International activist and co-editor of a student newspaper. She has participated in Model United Nations conferences for two years, and wishes to further develop her mooting skills through Willem C. Vis Moot, as she is very interested in International Commercial Contracts Law.

Gülce Gürler is currently pursuing the LL.M with specialism in Corporate and Commercial Laws at the LSE. She graduated from the Faculty of Law, University of Galatasaray. During her undergraduate studies she undertook several internships in different Turkish law firms. She also participated in a conference between Galatasaray University and Fribourg University, for which she made a presentation on "International sales agreements and reparation of damage in case of late delivery." This experience led to her interest in international commercial laws, which she hopes to develop through the Willem C. Vis moot. She is therefore very happy to be a part of the LSE team!

Ingram Cheung is currently in the third year of his LL.B. degree at the LSE. As part of the LSE team that won the London Universities Mooting Shield (2010/2011), he has had the unique opportunity to moot in the Royal Courts of Justice and the Supreme Court before Lord Dyson. He is interested in commercial and corporate laws and hopes to develop his knowledge on the CISG by participating in the Willem C. Vis Moot. He has previously volunteered at the Bar Pro Bono Unit and has interned at Allen & Overy and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

Man-Kit Chau is currently pursuing the LL.M. with specialism in Corporate and Commercial Laws at the LSE. He graduated from The University of Hong Kong and is a HSBC Chevening Scholar. His interests in cross-border transactions and international business laws were sparked during internships in the legal department of a multi-national corporation in Shanghai and a subsequent internship in the Dispute Resolution practice at Simmons & Simmons (Hong Kong). He therefore chose to further this interest through the LL.M. and the Willem C. Vis Moot. He is thrilled to be part of the LSE team!

Pieter De Smedt is currently pursuing the LL.M. with specialism in International Commercial Law at the LSE. He secured his Bachelors and Masters’ Degrees in Law at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. He has always been interested in economics and the economic element of law. Through subsequent experiences, he made consistent choices towards litigation and ADR and plans to pursue a career as a Dispute Resolution lawyer, specifically in international commercial arbitration. This Moot is therefore completely in line with his aspirations which makes him a very motivated participant.

Seán O'Dea is currently pursuing an LL.M. with specialism in Corporate and Commercial Laws at LSE with a focus on financial and insolvency laws. He graduated with a Bachelors in Civil Law (with History) degree from University College Dublin. Seán became interested in arbitration and international commercial law during an internship in the commercial court in Ireland and is looking forward to developing this interest further by participating in the LSE Vis Moot team.

Sonja Pavic is presently pursuing one year of her law course at the LSE on a study abroad programme as part of her JD degree at the University of Toronto. She has a Bachelor of Arts and Science in Political Science and Pscyhology from McGill University. She has previously been a participant in the Jessup International Law Moot and is a keen mooter. Last summer she worked for a large commercial law firm in Canada which triggered her interest in international commercial arbitration. She hopes to practice in this field when she begins training for the same firm next August and therefore hopes to develop this interest through the Willem C. Vis moot.

Yi-Jun Kang is presently in the third-year of her LL.B. degree at the LSE. She was awarded the John Griffiths Award for Best Overall Performance in the first-year examinations. She has elected to study contract and commercial laws and pursues this interest through extra-curricular activities. A previous internship in the International Dispute Resolution department of Baker & McKenzie sparked her interest in International Arbitration.
She participated in the Willem C Vis Moot 2010/11 and is happy to be a part of the team again this year.
 

The Coaches

Aashni Dalal is presently preparing to qualify as a Barrister at the Bar of England & Wales. She has read law at the Government Law College, Mumbai and at the LSE Faculty of Law, where she obtained her LL.B in 2010. She secured the LL.M. in International Business Laws from UCL in 2011. She participated in the Willem C. Vis moot as a participant of the LSE team in 2009/10, when she secured the Martin Domke Award for the second-best Individual Speaker of the competition, and returned to coach the team in 2010/11 and 2011/12.

Manuel Penadés Fons is a Visiting Researcher at LSE. He obtained a LL.M. with specialism in International Business Laws from the LSE in 2009 and was also a part of the LSE Vis Moot team that year. He holds two degrees from the University of Valencia in Law and Business Studies (Hons), where he is presently a Ph.D. candidate specialising in International Arbitration and Cross-border Insolvency. Before starting his doctoral studies, he interned in the Arbitration group of Wilmer Hale (London), clerked at the Regional Commercial Court of Valencia and qualified as an abogado (Spain) and solicitor (England & Wales). He has been a scholar of the PEPP programme and works occasionally for DG Markt (European Commission) as an external legal expert from Spain.

Ugljesa Grusic is presently researching for a Ph.D. at the LSE, focussing on employment contracts in European Private International Law. Ugljesa obtained his LL.B. from the University of Belgrade and the LL.M. in International Commercial Law from the University of Nottingham. He participated in the Vis Moot in 2005/2006 as a member of the University of Belgrade team, and spent four years coaching the University of Belgrade (2007/2008 and 2008/2009) and the LSE (2009/2010 and 2010/2011) teams for the competition.

 

Previous Team Members and Past Achievements

 

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 (2008/9)

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

  

Sponsors

Our success would not be possible without the help of our sponsors.  We are very grateful for their financial and logistic support!

 

If you are interested in supporting the LSE Team for the Vis Moot, please contact Uglješa Grušić

 

 

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, including that of the ICC International Court of Arbitration.
 

 

Links 

 

Contacts:

Ugljesa Grusic: u.grusic@lse.ac.uk

Dr Jan Kleinheisterkamp: j.kleinheisterkamp@lse.ac.uk

Law Home Page