A. Introduction

The following essay was written by team members of Johann Wolfgang Goethe University (Frankfurt/ Main, Germany) who participated in the 12th Vis Moot. Its purpose is to raise interest in the moot by means of combining a general descriptive overview with personal experiences.

From 18 to 24 March 2005 the University of Vienna hosted the 12th Annual Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot. During this time the brief sentence “The moot changed my life!” was probably the expression most often heard in the Dachgeschoss (top floor) of the Juridicum in Vienna. It was uttered by numerous former participants who are still affiliated with the Vis Moot as organizers, arbitrators or administrative supporters.

B. The Vis Moot – An Overview

What is the Vis Moot? Given its still growing popularity and importance, several essays on the Vis Moot have been published recently, including an article from one of the Vis Moot’s founders that introduces the moot in a plain and informative manner. Therefore, there is no need to provide such a basic introduction here. Hence, only a rather brief overview of the moot’s history and structure will be given in the report at hand, while its focus will be on outlining the 12th moot’s legal dispute and submitting personal experiences of the team from Frankfurt’s Johann Wolfgang Goethe University. This perspective might help to explain why the moot has such a strong impact on former participants, why they still put so much time and effort into promoting this event and sometimes even say that it “changed their life.”

I. Historical Background

The moot was first proposed at a Congress of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) in 1992. The idea to establish a student contest in international commercial law and arbitration was born out of the impression that these two fields of law were misrepresented in legal education. Two former UNCITRAL Secretaries, Prof. Willem Vis and Prof. Eric Bergsten, who were both teachers...