Willem C Vis Moot Court team successful in pre-moots

Left to right: Olivier Peeters, Janek Bednarz, Daniel Maglieri, Su-Yi Leung Wing Cheung. Photo credit: Leonie Adam

A team of students from The Dickson Poon School of Law have been successfully participating in pre-moots for the 24th Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot, where they will represent King’s College London in Vienna, Austria this April.

Earlier this month the team won the White & Case London pre-moot and came in third out of 14 teams at the Edinburgh University pre-moot two days later, where team member Daniel Maglieri won third place for individual speakers. 

The Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot itself is a prestigious private law moot court held annually in Vienna. The competition involves a fictitious cross-border commercial dispute, between parties situated in the countries of Equatoriana and Mediterraneo to be decided in arbitration under the CAM-CCBC Arbitration Rules.

This year’s team, consisting of Janek Bednarz (third year LLB), Su-Yi Leung Wing Cheung (LLM), Daniel Maglieri (third year LLB) and Olivier Peeters (second year LLB) started work on the problem in October 2016. The problem involves contentious issues, both in arbitration and in international sales of goods under the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). With the help of their dedicated student coach Leonie Adam (LLM), they have become familiar with contentious issues such as security for costs and admissibility in arbitration and contractual interpretation under the CISG.

With 10 very strong teams participating in the White & Case pre-moot, the King’s Team gained valuable insight into what to expect when they reach Vienna. Against fierce competition, the team faced-off against the University of Ghent and the University of Stockholm (who placed third and fourth respectively), coming out of the qualifying rounds in second place. In an intense final round with highly reputable panel members, the King’s team emerged victorious from a close face-off against The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple.

All teams will face-off again at the Moot in Vienna, until then the King’s Team is working hard in order to retain its title and bring King’s College to success in Austria.

The team and coach would like to thank everybody for the excellent support that they provided, especially our faculty supervisor Dr Emily Hudson (KCL) who provided invaluable advice and generous sponsorship, and Georg Stiglbauer (LL.B 3rd year KCL), Mike Han (Wilmer Hale), Marleen Krueger (Wilmer Hale), Lloyd Meng (LSE),  Blake Primrose (DLA Piper).

You can find out more about the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot on their website.