Dear Students,

we are looking for students who wish to become a member of the next team to represent the University of Fribourg at the 29th Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot (Vis Moot) in 2021/2022.

The Vis Moot is the largest and most prestigious student competition in the field of international commercial and arbitration law. Last year, almost 400 teams from every corner of the world wrote memoranda and plead on a fictional commercial case to be resolved in front of an arbitration panel.

The Vis Moot not only offers the chance to gain experience in international commercial arbitration by arguing your case in front of specialized lawyers in Switzerland (Bär & Karrer, Bratschi, Homburger, Kellerhals Carrard, Lenz & Staehelin, Pestalozzi, Walder Wyss, to name a few) and abroad (Pre-Moots such as Helsinki, London, Belgrade, Kopenhagen, etc.), but also to extend your circle of friends and contacts in an exceptional environment.

The participation will be credited with 15 ECTS. At your choice, the points will be credited either as special credits or as special credits plus a graded seminar paper (Master), special credits and a proseminar paper (Bachelor), respectively.

The 29th Vis Moot will start with the distribution of the problem on the 8th of October 2021 and will last until April 14th, 2022. From October to January, the Fribourg team will write two memoranda. In the Memorandum for Claimant, the team adopts the plaintiff’s point of view. Correspondingly, the team defends the defendant's position in the Memorandum for Respondent. Following the written phase, the Team will prepare for the oral rounds. It will plead in front of trained lawyers in Switzerland and abroad and will also participate at pre-moots, which are small international competitions in the run-up to the competition in Vienna. The highlight of the months of “mooting” are the oral rounds in Vienna, Austria, where each team will participate, without pre-selection.

In the last few years, several teams of the University of Fribourg won numerous awards for their memoranda and pleadings. We sincerely hope that we keep up the good work!

The application is open to students who have completed four semesters of law studies and have a good knowledge of the English language. Applications (resume and cover letter [in English], grades, certificates, etc.) should be sent to christiana.fountoulakis@unifr.ch until the 26th of July 2021.

For further information we kindly refer you to www.unifr.ch/fountoulakis/fr/enseignement/willemvismoot/. You may also want to have a look at the official Moot website: https://vismoot.org. For any further question, please contact the Coaches (vismootfribourg@gmail.com) or join our zoom presentation held on Saturday the 15th of May 2021 at 4 pm followed by a Q&A and open discussions (Link: us02web.zoom.us/j/9043215349, Meeting-ID: 904 321 5349).