University of Tartu law students made history at reputable Willem C. Vis moot competition

On 16 April, for the first time in the history of law education in Estonia, the team of the University of Tartu School of Law reached the top 32 in the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot in Vienna.

At the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot, representative teams from nearly 400 prestigious universities worldwide test their skills. Participants solve a contractual law problem in the form of international arbitration proceedings.

The University of Tartu team reached the top 32 and received an honourable mention for the Memorandum for Claimant. The team included second-year master’s students Karl-Enrik Kriis and Paul Kattago, and third-year bachelor’s students Siim Reineberg and Heiti Talvik. The coaches were attorneys-at-law Maria Teder and Georg Kuusik, legal advisor at the Ministry of Education and Research Armani Pogosjan, attorneys-at-law Kaisa Üksik and Gerli Helene Gritsenko, and Vincent Langer, a visiting student from the University of Bayreuth studying at the University of Tartu School of Law.

This year’s competition lasted seven months and consisted of both written and oral parts. In the general rounds of oral hearings in Vienna, points were collected to determine the ranking of universities. To prepare for the Vienna competition, the University of Tartu team also participated in four separate pre-moot events in Riga, Helsinki, Berlin, and Florence. A notable second place was achieved in the Florence Vis Pre-Moot.

Students from the University of Tartu School of Law have participated in the Vis Moot 18 times already. Due to significant competition, the dream of Baltic teams reaching the top 64 had remained unfulfilled until now, making the top 32 place a major accomplishment.

The organisers say the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot Competition can be considered the Olympic Games for law students. The purpose of the competition is to foster the study of international commercial law and practice resolving international business disputes by arbitration. Generally, winners are from countries with developed arbitration procedures, long-standing universities familiar with continental European legal systems, such as Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, as well as universities familiar with Anglo-American legal systems and with excellent English language skills, such as North America, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Nordic universities have also been successful in the competition.