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Columbia University Columbia Law |
We represent Columbia Law School at the annual Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot, the world's leading law school moot court competition in private international law.
The Vis Moot is based on a hypothetical private contractual dispute in international trade. Between March and April every year, thousands of law students from around the world compete by preparing written memoranda and taking part in oral rounds held in Vienna, Austria and at the sister moot, the Vis East, in Hong Kong.
The Law School has a long tradition of sending a team to Vienna and to overseas pre-moots throughout Europe in cities such as Dusseldorf, Budapest and The Hague. In some past years, we have sent a team to take part in the Hong Kong competition as well.
Columbia has performed consistently well at the Vis, winning the inaugural moot in 1994 and the award for Best Claimant Memorandum in 2006. The team also reached the semifinals in 2006, as well as the quarterfinals in 1997 and 2013.
The Columbia Vis team's participation is made possible through the generous support of the Dean's Office; Student Services; Professors Alejandro Garro, Philip Genty, Robert Smit and George Bermann; as well as our international network of alumni.
Any full-time student at Columbia Law School may apply to join the team at the beginning of each school year. 1Ls, 2Ls, 3Ls and LLM students not already licensed to practice law are all welcome. There are no course or language pre-requisites, but a background or interest in international commercial law or arbitration will be helpful. Participation in Vis satisfies the moot court component of the Legal Practice Workshop for 1Ls. Writing credit may also be available for upper-year students.
The problem is released early in October, so we will usually take applications in mid-September and hold one to two days of try-outs. Please feel free to email columbiavis.request@gmail.com if you require more information.
