A team of law students from the University of Stellenbosch recently finished in 16th position out of 178 universities in the 14th Annual Willem C Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot held in Vienna. The team was represented by Chrystal October, Malcolm Ratz, André Pelser and Franziska Myburgh, and coached by Prof Mustaqeem da Gama and Mr Louw Kriegler from the Faculty of Law. This is the University’s best result to date following its overall ranking of 25th position in 2005.

The annual Willem C Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot is the largest of its kind and is aimed at encouraging students to study international commercial law and arbitration, a method of dispute resolution that enjoys marked preference in the international business world, and to apply the knowledge so gained to a concrete problem. In the process, students also gain experience in the techniques of litigation.

“The magnitude of the competition is illustrated by the fact that 500 lawyers, advocates, judges and professors worldwide attended the moot this year in order to participate as arbitrators in the oral arguments,” says Prof Da Gama.

The competition started in 1993 with a handful of teams and has grown in popularity in the past few years to such an extent that this year 178 universities from across the world were represented, among them such well-known law schools as the University of Harvard, University of Leyden and Columbia University. More than 1 500 students participated in the event.

The competition consists of three parts. Students are presented with an international business transaction dispute and are required to write memoranda for both the claimant as well as the respondent. After the written memoranda have been submitted teams gather in Vienna where the oral arguments of the teams are adjudicated.

“The University of Stellenbosch did remarkably well, considering the quality of universities we argued against, in progressing to the final round of 16 teams, where we were unfortunately eliminated by the University of Victoria, New Zealand,” says Mr Kriegler.

Stellenbosch University's law faculty has been participating in the event since 2001. In 2002 it achieved an honorable mention for the quality of its written memoranda.