Teams results !!!

One, two, three, four and five awards !!! At last, the results were published on the Moot Website (www.cisg.law.pace.edu/cisg/moot/awards16.html)

Sixteenth Annual Willem C. Vis
International Commercial Arbitration Moot
2008-2009

Pieter Sanders Award Best Memorandum for Claimant First Place University of Sydney Second Place (tie) McGill University Stockholm University Honorable Mention University of Aarhus American University, Washington College of Law University of Belgrade University of Bern Cardozo Law School University of Erlangen-Nürnberg Free University of Berlin University of Fribourg, Switzerland University of Geneva George Washington University Harvard University King's College, London Louisiana State University University of Munich University of Münster National University of Juridical Sciences University of New South Wales University of Ottawa University Paris I - Pantheon/ Sorbonne Pace University National University of Singapore University of Vienna

Werner Melis Award Best Memorandum for Respondent First Place Stockholm University Second Place University of Freiburg Third Place University of Mainz University of Munich Honorable Mention Ateneo de Manila University University of Cologne University of Düsseldorf Florida Coastal University University of Fribourg, Switzerland University of Geneva George Washington University University of Heidelberg Humboldt University King's College, London London School of Economics University of Lucerne McGill University University of Münster National University of Juridical Sciences University Paris I - Pantheon/ Sorbonne Reykjavik University University of Sydney University of Zurich

Martin Domke Award Best Individual Oralist In the General Rounds First Place Oliver Jones, The Honorable Society of Lincoln's Inn Second Place Sarah Wright, University of California, Berkeley Third Place Alexander Fawke, Monash University Honorable Mention George Anand, Fordham University Filip Balcerzak, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan Gabriele Bares, University of the Saarland Esha Bhandari, Columbia University Kalyn Bethany Bomback, Osgoode Hall Law School Emmanuel A. Cárdenas R., Panamerican University, Mexico City Patrick M. Causey, Stetson University Elaine Chew, National University of Singapore Amber L. Curl, Loyola University, Chicago Juliana De Ureña Galvis, University Carlos III de Madrid Shraddha Deshmukh, ILS Law College, Pune University Matt du Mee, Harvard University Derya Durlu, Bilkent University Carolin Emmert, University of Heidelberg Joseph W. Etter, Stetson University Andrew Ferguson, University of California, Berkeley Anja Fingerhut, University of Hamburg Camille Flechet, King's College, London Katherine Ford, University of New South Wales Paw Fruerlund Jensen, University of Southern Denmark Anja Grabundzija, McGill University Brendan Green, University of Ottawa Casey Groher, George Washington University Srishti Gupta, National Law University, Jodhpur Daisy Gurdian, Tulane University Hjördís Birna Hjartardóttir, Reykjavik University Philipp Hofmann, University of Freiburg David Hume, Victoria University of Wellington David Ingle, College of Law of England and Wales Wolfgang Junge, Bucerius Law School Shira Kaufman, Columbia University Michaela Krömer, University of Vienna Céline Lachmann, CRFPA de Versailles (Versailles Bar School) Kirsten Lau, University of New South Wales Liz Lindesay, Harvard University Samantha Lord, Murdoch University James Lucarello, Touro College Law Center Melissa D. Marsh, Tulane University Meyghan McCrea, Columbia University Jana Meier, Franklin Pierce Law Center Alexander Monro, University of the Saarland Sara Nadeau-Séguin, London School of Economics Heinrich Nemeczek, University of Freiburg Alissa Palumbo, Pace University Fran Pelicari, University of Zagreb Ivana Reljanovi, University of Zagreb Jonathan Robilotto, Stockholm University Nicholas Rudd, Griffith University Peter Sadler, Murdoch University Shabana Saleem, Queen Mary Timothy Schmidt, Hofstra University Javier Solana Álvarez, University Carlos III de Madrid Christian Steger, University of Hamburg Dominik Steghöfer, University of Munich Marta Stepien, University of Münster Ivana Stojši, University of Belgrade Tanja Stooß, University of Heidelberg Preeti Sukthanker, ILS Law College, Pune University Nhu Tran, University of Wisconsin Sherlin Tung University of San Diego Bram Van Eeckhout, King's College, London Michael M. Viglione, Loyola University, Chicago Paula Viola, McGill University Kathrin Vorholzer, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg Michael Watkins, The Honorable Society of Lincoln's Inn Tiong Teck Wee, National University of Singapore Wenzhao Zhuo, New York University

Frédéric Eisemann Award Team Orals First Place Victoria University of Wellington Second Place ILS Law College, Pune University Third Place Griffith University King's College, London Quarter Finalists University of Ottawa University of Reykjavik University of São Paulo Tulane University Elimination Round Participating Teams University of Aarhus Ateneo de Manila University University of Basel University of Belgrade University of Bonn Brooklyn Law School University of Buenos Aires University of California, Berkeley University Carlos III de Madrid Central European University Columbia University University of Copenhagen CRFPA de Versailles (Versailles Bar School) Emory University University of Erlangen-Nürnberg Fordham University Free University of Berlin University of Freiburg University of Hamburg Hamline University Harvard University University of Heidelberg Humboldt University Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico The Honorable Society of Lincoln's Inn London School of Economics Loyola University, Chicago Loyola Law School, Los Angeles University of Mainz McGill University Monash University University of Munich University of Münster Murdoch University National Law University, Jodhpur National University of Juridical Sciences University of New South Wales New York University Osgoode Hall Law School Pace University Panamerican University, Mexico City University Paris I - Panthéon - Sorbonne University Paris II Panthéon - Assas University of Pittsburgh Queen Mary University of the Saarland University of San Diego National University of Singapore University of Southern Denmark Stetson University Stockholm University University of Sydney Touro College Law Center National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) University of Vienna University of Virginia University of Zagreb

Miscellaneous (Paris)

Some random pictures shot in Paris:

A "wallace" fountain.

The Parisian flower market (Île de la cité)

French café.

Bramouille

La sainte chapelle.

The french underground (I)

The french underground (II)

Miscellaneous pictures (Vienna) & "remerciements"

random pictures:

Merci à toute l'équipe de KCL pour leurs exploits dument mérités, un petit merci spécial à Camille pour t'être tant impliquée et pour avoir permis, par ta connaissance de la CISG, que l'équipe poursuivre les final rounds, à Basile pour cette incroyable plaidoirie en 1/4 de finale, à Bram who is simply "the best", à Katherine pour avoir lancé l'idée du moot à KCL ...
Merci à tous ceux qui nous ont tellement aidés à Londres Metka, Alexis, Dafina et Yves
Merci aux cabinets Baker and McKenzie, WilmerHale et Freshfields de Londres
Merci aux cabinets Clifford Chance, Gide Loyrette Nouel and Moore de Paris
Merci à Messieurs les professeurs Jan Dalhuisen, Pierre Mayer, et Peter Winship et Messieurs Johnny Veeder et Sam Wordsworth
Merci aux organisateurs des practice moots de La Haye et de Madrid
Merci à toutes les sympathiques équipes rencontrées et notamment Paris 1, CRFPA versailles, Paris 2; Sciences-Po Paris, Erlangen Nurnberg, VUW, Carlos III, LSE, Warsaw, Mexico, Manilla ...
Merci à tous les arbitres qui ont patiemment écouté nos submissions
Merci à Kua Kessuwan et Alexander Turk de King's College London
Merci à tous ceux qui ont supporté la langue française
Merci Professeur Bergsten

Merci merci merci ...

Semi-final ... banquet ... the end

Thursday 9th April 2009:
There were still four teams in the competition: Wellington, Pune, Griffith and KCL !!!
After a long night of rest at the hotel for Camille and a couple of whiskeys at a club for Basile, the team mooted against the most extraodinary team: VUW (Victoria University of wellington) ... two amazing pleaders David and Katherine and an amazing coach Dr Petra Butler.

Professor Jan Dalhuisen with Basile and Camille

Almost a pleasure to loose agaisnt them ... at least a great pleasure to have mooted with them and, even though the final was very close, the KCL team was very happy to end third equal (out of 233 universities) in the 16th Willem C Vis moot.

Congratulations camille and Basile and congratulation to the rest of the team !!!


A bit disappointed and ecstatic at the same time, the KCL team rushed to the hotel then to the banquet in order to watch the final opposing VUW and Pune (India).
The winner was ... Victoria University of Wellington !!! congratulation to this wonderful team !!!

At the Banquet, the KCL team shared its table with another wonderful team, the versailles Bar School team, which managed to go to the final rounds without any coach.

Alexandre from the Versailles Bar School team

The KCL team is very proud to announce that, in addition to finish third equal in the vis moot 2009, it won an award for its claimant memorandum, an award for its respondent memorandum and that Bram and Camille both won an award for their advocacy skills ...

Camille learning she was awarded for her advocay skills.

Reviews ...

Global Arbitration review:

New Zealand team wins Vis moot

15 April 2009

Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand beat the International Law School of Pune in India in the 16th Vis moot in Vienna last week. But it was the performance of the - uncoached - Indian team that stood out, for at least one seasoned moot goer.

The final round was judged by the secretary general of the SCC Arbitration Institute Ulf Franke, Lebanese arbitrator and professor Nayla Comair-Obeid and Philip Capper, a partner at White & Case LLP and a professor at King's College London. before a crowd of 1,500 spectators.
Griffith University of Queensland and King's College London were runners-up. Other prizes went to teams from the University of Stockholm [best claimant memorandum] and the University of Sydney, New South Wales [best respondent memorandum].
Hew Dundas, one of the arbitrators at both this moot and last week's Vis Moot (East), says the Pune team gained the crowd's affection as an uncoached team consisting of two female students with only a single researcher as back-up.
"The single most outstanding performance was one of the Pune team members arguing on jurisdiction - objectively an impossible mountain to climb," he says.
Dundas, who describes the moot as one of the highlights of his professional year, also singles out a Polish team who mistakenly thought they were appearing for the claimant, but managed to put on a "highly creditable" performance for the respondent at just 10 minute's notice.
Although some suggested that this year's moot problem was tipped in favour of the respondent, in the 62 elimination rounds claimant teams won as often as the respondents. Dundas says this is because good moot judges decide on the basis of advocacy alone. "The moot is not about who wins or loses the case per se, but who argues better - so arguing a weak case well and imaginatively outperforms arguing an easy case routinely," he says.
This was reflected in the results of the 62 elimination rounds - in which claimant teams won as often as respondents.
This year's moot attracted 233 teams from 59 jurisdictions including Bahrain, the Cayman Islands, Iceland, Kazakhstan, Kosovo and Oman. The greatest number of teams came from the US (53), Germany (24), India (17), France (12), Switzerland (11) and England (10). The quarter-finals included teams from eight different countries.
In total there were roughly 1,500 student participants present and 650 arbitrators. 529 hearings took place over six days requiring 1, 587 arbitral "appointments".
Dundas says: "The Willem C Vis moot is one of the great events in the world's legal calendar and words are inadequate to measure the magnitude of Professor Eric Bergsten's achievement in bringing it to where it now is".
Last month's Vis Moot (East) featured 64 teams and was won by Loyola Law School of Los Angeles.
AR

Wednesday (final rounds)

The team has been qualified !!! It was decided that Camille and Basile were going to represent KCL for the further stage(s?) .








Round of 32: Southern Denmark v. KCL

Mr. Chair

The audience.

Claimant: the University of Southern Denmark.

Respondent: Camille and Basile listening to the claimant's submissions.

The tribunal.


The KCL team was very impressed by the Team from Denmark, almost if not perfect regarding the way thay submitted their claim... thus the team was quite afraid ...

The Team made it !!!

Thank you Camille, apparently the substance on the CISG part allowed the team to go to the next stage ...

Round of 16: KCL v Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico

Camille and Basile ready to moot for the second time of the day.

Claimant : Camille and Basile

Respondent: Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico

Mr. Chair : Professor Mistellis

The tribunal.


The KCL team really enjoyed mooting against the team of Mexico ... its members and coaches were eceptionnaly nice and fairplay people ...
However, the KCL team was still very happy to learn that Basile and Camille made it to the round of 8 !!! After a coin was tossed, the KCL team was again to be Claimant

Round of 8 : KCL v. Ateneo de Manila University

Claimant : Basile and Camille.




Again the KCL team fancied mooting against such a nice team ... And again the KCL team fancied learning it was selected for the 1/4 final !!!!

Camille reading her submission after having enjoyed a well deserved weizenbier.

1/4 final : University of São Paulo v. KCL
the room was full ... people had to stand or to leave the room ...

And ... the KCL team learned it made it throug the SEMI-FINAL !!!! It was to be respondent against the team of Wellington, the day after at 9am ...

Thank you Basile, as we were told after the session, you were: "brilliant" ...

Vienna Tuesday 7th April 2009 (IV Bis)

Done ... Four sessions ... four pleaders... four opponent teams... four days ...








The KCL team and their red KCL folders finally resting ...

After a short break, mostly spent at unsuccessfully finding a suitable place to drink, the KCL team went to the Austria center, next to the Danube, where the announcement of the 64 lucky teams were going to take place.

The Autria Center.

The fully craked room and its audience waiting for the announcement ...

Professor Bergsten, after having tried to entertain the audience, was finaly ready to announce the 64 teams which will go to the final rounds...
32 teams were first announced and had to moot at 8pm the same day. Unfortunately, the KCL team was not amongst them...
However the KCL team was next called and was made aware it had to moot the next day against the team of the university of Southern Denmark !!!

In addition, and to our great pleasure, many of the teams we have met and/or mooted against were also selected: Versailles Bar School, Paris I, Paris II, Wellington, Madrid, LSE, Erlangen ...

Toni Marzal, one of the coaches of Paris 1, very happy at the success of his team.