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The Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot is an annual competition of teams representing law schools throughout the world. One might call it world championship. In the Thirtysecond Annual Moot in 2024/2025, more than 380 law school teams from over 80 countries participated in the competition. Around 3.000 student team members travelled to Vienna and were judged by 1.000 lawyers and professors from around the world. Saarland reached the round of 32 among 386 law schools. We are now looking for a new team.
Goals. The Moot is intended to stimulate the study of international commercial law, especially the legal texts prepared by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), and the use of international commercial arbitration to resolve international commercial disputes. The international nature of the Moot is intended to lead participants to interpret the texts of international commercial law in the light of different legal systems and to develop an expertise in advocating a position before an arbitral tribunal composed of arbitrators from different legal systems. An active social program at the time of the oral hearings in Vienna is organised by the Moot Alumni Association with the aim of promoting friendships that can last long after the Moot itself is over.
The Moot consists of the preparation of a Memorandum for Claimant (starting in the first week of October), a memorandum for Respondent (starting in mid December), and oral hearings (all over Europe and finally in Vienna). The Moot is hard work for half a year and at the same time the most rewarding and challenging educational event in a law student’s life.
Venue. The final oral hearings will be held in Vienna, Austria, at the Faculty of Law of the University of Vienna and some international law firms. The general rounds will take place Saturday until Tuesday, March 28-31, 2026. The elimination rounds (the top 64 teams of the general rounds) will take place on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, March 31 and April 1 and 2, culminating in the final round on Thursday, April 2, 2026.
Language, Freischuss. The Moot will be conducted in English. For “Freischuss” the Moot is considered to be a term (semester) abroad, extending the time for Freischuss.
For more information see https://www.vismoot.org/ and
https://ruessmann.jura.uni-saarland.de.
Students interested in becoming part of the Saarland Vis Moot Team are kindly asked to express their interest via email not later than June 1, 2025.
Univ.-Prof. em. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Helmut Rüßmann
05/23/2025