Friday, September 5th, 2008

The University of San Diego Vis Moot Commercial Arbitrations Team is proud to present the 1st Annual “Future Super Lawyers of San Diego” fundraiser. This event will include students from all three San Diego law schools, as well as many practicing attorneys and members of the San Diego County Bar Association. This will provide young and future legal professionals and opportunity to meet, network and become more acquainted with each other in an informal and relaxed setting. The night promises good conversation, drinks and dancing and will be the premier social event for San Diego’s finest young attorneys. It is not to be missed.

All proceeds will be used to support the USD Vis Moot Commercial Arbitrations Team in our efforts to provide critical skills training to emerging law students.

More Details TBA

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The 2008-2009 Willem C. Vis (East & West) International Commercial Arbitration Moots

“Legal education has not kept pace with developments in international law, including arbitration, that have taken place during the past several decades. That is understandable, the program of study in all countries is already overloaded with subjects of domestic law…. Therefore it is particularly important that a major step in the right direction has been taken, namely the Willem C. Vis international commercial arbitration moot.”
Professor Eric E Bergsten,
Pace University School of Law
18 Journal of International Arbitration (August 2001) No. 4, 481-4

A team of lawyers from the country of Mediterraneo sit across the table from a team of lawyers from the country of Equatoriana. One or both teams may well speak English only as a second language. A panel of arbiters drawn from three other countries hears each side’s arguments. All have agreed to meet and resolve their client’s dispute over a sale of goods between their respective countries in the neutral third country of Danubia.

Never heard of Mediterraneo, Equatoriana, or Danubia? That’s probably because they’re fictitious, created to give a framework for this moot international arbitration. But the rest of the dispute is as realistic as possible – and reflects an increasingly common situation in today’s global economy – an international sale of goods gone bad. The arbiters who judge the student teams of lawyers-in-training are some of the most experienced professionals in the world in the field of international commercial arbitration.

The Vis Moot, held each Spring, is a very special opportunity for law students and their coaches. The competitions are held in Hong Kong and Vienna Austria each year. All preliminary rounds are between teams from different countries, and usually even different continents. Thus, every student who participates gains invaluable hands-on experience making persuasive legal and factual arguments that can reach across language and cultural divides.

In addition to the international character of the Vis Moot, the competitions focus on two important areas of law for the international commercial lawyer: arbitration procedure, and the UN Convention on the International Sale of Goods (CISG). Any lawyer who wishes to possess the essential skills needed to represent clients in international commercial sales transactions must be conversant with these two areas of law.

Arbitration, and not litigation in national courts, is by far the dominant form of commercial dispute resolution internationally. This is true for many reasons, but one reason in particular stands out: arbitration awards are enforceable. Almost every country with significant global trade has signed the New York Convention, and agreed to use its national judicial power to honor validly issued international arbitration awards. Contrast this with national court judgments, which are very rarely honored in a third country when a party seeks to collect on a foreign judgment.

The CISG is the governing law in many international sales of goods. While familiar to many lawyers due to similarity with their national statutes on the sale of goods (such as the U.S. Uniform Commercial Code), there are some striking differences. By understanding how to apply the CISG in a complex dispute, a lawyer will be better equipped to serve their client’s in international transactions, and maybe even help avoid disputes in the first place.

The Vis Moot East, held in Hong Kong each March, will be in its fifth year in 2008. Last year, over 50 teams from 28 countries competed. See http://www.cisgmoot.org/ for more details. The Vis Moot, held in Vienna Austria a week following the Vis Moot East, is in its fifteenth year in 2008. Last year 178 teams from 50 countries participated. See http://www.cisg.law.pace.edu/vis.html for more details. Both of these competitions use the same moot problem, and universities may send separate teams to each city, or just to one. USD has sent different teams to each city for the last three years and plans to build on our level of success this year.

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