Company's Liveryman sits on final panel in International Arbitration Moot

Liveryman and Court Assistant Hew Dundas sat on the Panel in the Final of the XIVth Willem C Vis Arbitration Moot in Vienna in April 2007. His co-arbitrator was Jingzhou Tao ( Beijing ) and the chairman was Professor Adrian Severin, a former Minster of Justice of Romania. 178 teams from law schools in 52 jurisdictions competed and over 600 arbitrators (including almost all the world's leading arbitrators, arbitration lawyers and academics) from at least as many countries heard the arguments; the overall standard was very high and the standard of the leading teams exceptional.

The creators of this extraordinary event were Professor Eric Bergsten and his colleagues at Pace University (White Plains, New York) where the late Willem C Vis taught; the legendary Professor Bergsten is a former Secretary-General of UNCITRAL and remains the indefatigable Director of the Vienna Moot; there is also a sibling Moot in Hong Kong (in 2007, 46 teams from 14 jurisdictions in only its 4 th year) directed by the energetic Louise Barrington.

The goal of the Moot is to foster the study of both international commercial law and arbitration for resolution of international business disputes through their application to a concrete problem and thereby to train tomorrow's generation of leading lawyers in arbitration practice and procedure.

Prior to the Moot's oral stages, students work on a detailed and intricate case study (derived from a real case, this year relating to the supply of electrical fuseboards to a large-scale office development) for several months, submitting Memoranda for each of Claimant and Respondent, these for evaluation by an international panel. The applicable law is the UN Convention on the International Sale of Goods (CISG) and the ensuing arbitration takes place in a fictitious country whose lex arbitri is the UNCITRAL Model Law. The 2007 case study involved complex and subtle issues of jurisdiction of the tribunal, breach of contract and mitigation of damages and rotated around the Rules of the Court of International Commercial Arbitration attached to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania.

In the Moot's oral stages, each team argues the case before international panels of arbitrators, arguing twice as Claimant and twice as Respondent; the 32 highest-scoring teams then proceed to a knock-out phase, with the final hearing taking place before an international tribunal in the presence of an audience of nearly 1,500. The arbitration hearings are designed to reflect real-world arbitration proceedings as far as possible. All proceedings, written and oral, are in English; it was astonishing that none of the 2007 semi-finalist teams came from native English-speaking countries, a Moot first.

The Moot's focus is on participation and on the students; Professor Gabrielle Kaufmann-Kohler, former President of the Swiss Arbitration Association and a member of the Panel in the 2007 final in Hong Kong, has said:

"The Moot is an event of major importance. It is the place where the next arbitration generation is being raised and moulded - a place where you find the future practitioners, possibly even the stars of tomorrow. It is also a place where a true transnational culture of arbitration is being developed."

Hew Dundas commented to this Newsletter:

“One of the outstanding highlights of my professional year is to attend these two Moots and to witness the outstanding achievements of the participating students, particularly non-native English-speaking teams and those competing for the first time. I am indeed privileged to be associated with, and to have contributed to, such a truly inspiring event. In addition, I am profoundly honoured to have been appointed to the Final Panel in the presence of so many of the world's leaders in arbitration.”

The 2007 Vienna Moot produced dramatic conclusions: first, in the final, Freiburg University prevailed over Zagreb on a controversial 2:1 split decision with many in the audience putting Zagreb ahead; second, Freiburg also won the awards for both Claimant and Respondent Memoranda, only the second time in history that one team had won the “Triple Crown”.

The CIArb is the principal sponsor of the Hong Kong Moot through its East Asia Branch (whose members contribute a great deal of time and effort) and is a sponsor of the Vienna Moot. While the Vienna Moot has a sufficiency of arbitrators, the Hong Kong Moot needs YOUR assistance (3 rd to 9 th March 2008); you can combine an exciting holiday by arbitrating in the Moot and thereby rendering invaluable support to these wonderful students. You do not have to be a practising arbitrator. For further details contact Hew at dundas.energy@btinternet.com