Stockholm law students win annual international competition

The Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot gives law students around the world a chance to gain practical experience in international dispute resolution.

Over 223 universities competed in this year's competition including teams from Harvard, Berkley, Sorbonne and Freiburg University.

The moot began in September 2008 when competing groups were handed a fictitious case to study.

Documents outlined in detail how a company in one country had bought cars from a company in another country. The purchaser claimed the cars were riddled with faults and wanted to cancel the order and was now seeking arbitration.

The student teams were required to act as lawyers for both claimant and respondent in the case, producing detailed written documents.

They were required to first submit a 25-page plea in support of the claimant’s case, brought by the buyer. They then had to submit a second plea representing the respondent who had sold the cars. Teams were directed to find holes in the claimant's case and then provide counter written arguments in support of the respondent.

Each participating group had their pleas read and assessed by at least four experts in Commercial Arbitration. The fifteen best groups were then selected and their work was then assessed by eight of the world’s leading academics and practitioners of Commercial Arbitration.

The Stockholm team won first prize for their plea in support of the respondent’s case and second prize for their plea in defense of the claimant. 

Stockholm Unviersity’s team consisted of: Jonathan Robilotto (USA), Stephanie Cabral (USA), Laure Meyer (Switzerland), Jessica Edvall (Sweden), Sofia Palmqvist (Sweden) and Kseniya Koryukalova (Ukraina).

Link: the case http://www.cisg.law.pace.edu/cisg/moot/moot16.pdf

Text: Staffan Westerlund
English text: Jon Buscall