Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot

Thanks to UNIL's generous contribution and that of our sponsors, the costs of accommodation and transportation to pre-moots and other events are taken care of and paid for. While you have to pay for train rides and such, these costs are reimbursed at the end of the moot.

Here's a breakdown of the full journey:

• Vis Moot School Switzerland (usually the last week of September): from Saturday to Thursday, in Zurich, with crash courses in various Moot-related topics and social events.
• Written phase (October to January): the team will have to submit a full draft of the memo every week, to be reviewed and discussed with the coaches during a weekly meeting. You are free to work on your parts of the memo during the week, but have to schedule enough time for that and meetings with your colleagues.
• "Beamer sessions" (Monday-Thursday before each final submission deadline): during the four days preceding the final submission deadline for each memorandum (usually: 1st week of December for Claimant, mid-January for Respondent), the team gathers every day, all day, to give the memorandum a final read-through and polish so that it meets the very high-quality standards.
• Oral phase (after submission of the memorandum for Respondent until Easter): three meetings per week on average to train the pleadings internally (2-3 hours each). In addition, numerous afternoons or full days spent at law firm pleadings in Switzerland, as well as irregular Zoom pleadings with international teams. 3-4 pre-moots in Europe (typically Thu-Sun or Fri-Mon). 8 days in Vienna before Easter.

The team is as flexible as possible to allow for everyone to manage their other commitments, but the team expects a lot of flexibility, especially during the oral phase.

As you can see from previous editions, the teams in Lausanne are usually composed of 4 students, as this best allows sharing the workload throughout the written phase and allows optimal preparation during the oral phase (2 vs 2).

You can find the problems and memos of many editions on their respective page. As examples, here are the best-ranked memos for Claimant (31st edition) and Respondent (25th edition) from the UNIL team, with their respective problems.

Memorandum for Claimant (31st Vis Moot)

Case file (31st Vis Moot)

Memorandum for Respondent (25th Vis Moot)

Case file (25th Vis Moot)

The main factor we consider is motivation. Driven students are perfect for the Vis Moot. Very good command of English, both written and spoken, is a must. Knowing additional languages, especially German, is a plus. Prior knowledge in international commercial arbitration, international commercial law and related fields is not required, but is an advantage. We are looking for people who are curious, analytical and good team players.

Important: you must be a law student registered at the University of Lausanne (including LLM and joint UNIL-UZH degree) and must not be admitted to practice law. Accordingly, you must not have passed a bar exam. This requirement also covers students who already have an extensive professional experience in the field of law.