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What is the Vis Moot Court about?
The Willem C. Vis Moot Court is the worlds largest moot court competition and unites around 4.000 students and practitioners each year.
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The Vis Moot Court was founded in 1993 to promote the use of the CISG through means of international corporate arbitration. Thus, each year the participating students debate current questions of international arbitral procedure and corporate law. In the past years the Vis Moot problem has covered trending topics ranging from legal questions related to import tariffs to the production of renewable energy.
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The number of participating teams rises constantly each year. In the last years as many as 380 universities from more than 80 countries have enabled their students to participate in the Vis Moot Court. The participating students come from all parts of the world - may it be Cambridge, Johannesburg, New York, Rio de Janeiro or Singapore.
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In order for the participating students to meet one another and to practice their debating skills as much as possible, many pre-moot courts are organised each year. In the past, the team of WU Vienna participated amongst others in pre-moot rounds in Helsinki, Prague, Belgrade, St Petersburg, Riga and Zurich.
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While the locations of the pre-moots may vary every year, the finale is always held in Vienna in the week before Easter. Thus, each Vis Moot season spans from October until April. The first months of each season always enable the students to write two legal memoranda, which subsequently may serve as basis for a possible Master thesis. After the written exchange of arguments, the oral debating begins each year late in January and enables the teams to travel around the world to meet another and to practise their debating skills.
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The team of WU Vienna was founded in 2018 and has been participating in the Vis Moot Court ever since. Read more about our journey since then here. If you have any questions or want to apply for one of the following years, please do not hesitate to reach out to us at any given time.
  • Your two legal memoranda will be usually accepted as your Master thesis at WU.
  • You will participate in the biggest moot court competition in the world. It's the first step to become an international lawyer.
  • The language of the Vis Moot is English. After the moot, you will be fluent in English and know how to negotiate.
  • You will learn how to write legal memoranda and plead in front of an arbitral tribunal. Some of Austrian's leading law firms will train you.
  • The Vis Moot is truly international. At international pre-moots, you will meet hundreds of students, practitioners, and law firms from all over the world.
  • Most of your travel expenses will be covered by our scholarships.
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