The team of the University of Lausanne Faculty of Law and Criminal Sciences has received an Honorable Mention for Best Memorandum for Claimant at the XX Willem C. Vis international Commercial Arbitration Moot (Pieter Sanders Award - Best Memorandum for Claimant). The final stage of the competition took place from 21 to 28 March 2013 in Vienna. Over 2000 students from more than 290 Universities of 66 countries took part in the competition this year. It is the first time that our team received an award for writing of Memorandum since 2008 when the University of Lausanne started participating in the Vienna Moot. More importantly, this distinction means that the work of our students was among 25 best memoranda in the overall competition.
The Team this year consisted of six students: Patricia Beltrán Arroyo, Julien Billarant, Vipul Kabra, Ackley Litsios, Cristiane Souza and Armin Teymouri. Elza Reymond and Ellina Zinatullina were coaching the students under the supervision of Professor Andrea Bonomi. The team has also benefited from the support of other faculty members and former Moot participants both during written and oral stages of the competition.
The Willem C. Vis Moot is the biggest and most prestigious competition in the field of Private International Law. It involves solving a hypothetical dispute arising from an international sales contract and submitted to arbitration. This year students were dealing with the issues of the admissibility and probative weight of a written witness statement, which could not be verified by way of oral testimony and cross-examination; the choice of applicable law in the situation when party autonomy is in conflict with the form provisions of the CISG; and the effect of the seller's use of child labor in its other operations on the ethical quality of the goods.
Coaches
The Team was coached by Ellina Zinatullina and Elza Reymond under the supervision of Prof. Andrea Bonomi.
Prof. Andrea Bonomi has been in charge of the Vis Moot program at UNIL since its team first took part in this competition in 2008. For more details on his extensive experience and publications, please visit UNIL’s website.
Contact Prof. Bonomi
Ellina Zinatullina is a former Moot participant (2012). She did her undergraduate legal studies in Russia and is now an LL.M. student at UNIL. Before coming to Switzerland she worked in a Dispute Resolution department at the Moscow office of one of the Magic circle law firms.
Contact Ellina
Elza Reymond is a research and teaching assistant of Prof. Andrea Bonomi and Prof. Philippe Meier. She is working on a Ph.D. thesis in the field of International Arbitration under the supervision of Prof. Bonomi. She has been working since 2006 in two major American law firms specializing in International Commercial Arbitration.
(www.sidley.com/elza-reymond/).
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The Team
Patricia Beltrán Arroyo is an MLaw student, specializing in Comparative and International Law. She comes from Madrid and holds a law degree from the Universidad Complutense. Being a native Spanish speaker, Patricia also has an excellent command in English and French. Outside of her studies, Patricia has an interest in travel, classic literature, music and horse riding.
Julian Billarant is an MLaw student, specializing in Comparative and International Law. He is a finalist of the Swiss Moot Court of 2010-2011, in which he also won the award for the best memorandum. Julien originally comes from Paris, but pursued all his legal studies in Lausanne. Being a native French speaker, Julian has an excellent command in English as well as a good knowledge of the German and Italian languages. In his leisure time, Julien enjoys acting and writing, he also plays the guitar.
Vipul Kabra is an LL.M. student specializing in International and European Economic and Commercial Law. He holds a qualifying law degree from Warwick University, United Kingdom. Vipul has received practical experience through internships with two investment banks and a leading Indian law firm. He is a native English, Hindi speaker, also fluent in French and has a conversational level of Spanish. He enjoys debating and participating in different sports such as golf, skiing and cricket.
Ackley Litsios is an LL.M. student specializing in International and European Economic and Commercial Law. He holds a bachelor degree and a master 1 in International Business Law from the University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Being a native French speaker, Ackley is fluent in English and has a basic knowledge of German. Apart from his studies, Ackley is a founding associate in a French start-up company focusing on IT law. He is also an accomplished cello player.
Cristiane Souza is an LL.M. student specializing in International and European Economic and Commercial Law. She took a bachelors degree in law before obtaining a postgraduate degree in Environmental Law and Sustainable development from the University of Brazil in Brasilia. Cristiane gained practical legal experience through internships in a Brazilian court. Her mother tongue is Portuguese and she is fluent in English. In her free time Cristiane loves travelling to new places and taking photos.
Armin Teymouri is a law student at the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich specialising in German, European & International Tax Law. He is currently studying at UNIL under the Erasmus exchange programme. He received practical experience from internships with an international law firm based in Munich and one of the German multinational enterprises. Armin is a native German speaker; he is fluent in English and Farsi and has a basic knowledge of French.
