Six Maties studying at the Law Faculty went to Vienna, Austria, to compete in the twelfth annual Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot from 18 – 24 March. About 154 teams from across the globe participated in the event. The Stellenbosch team finished in the top sixteen team.

This is quite an achievement, as Stellenbosch has never reached the final elimination stage of the competition. Stetson University College of Law became the first American team to win the competition since 1996 when they defeated the University of Vienna in the final round. This competition for law students is held with the aim to foster the study of international commercial law and arbitration. Since its inception in 1993/1994, the event has become the world’s leading educational student competition in its field under the auspices of Prof Eric E Bergsten and the Institute of International Commercial Law at pace University School of Law.

The Moot involves a dispute arising out of a contract of sale between two countries that are party to the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. The business community's marked preference for resolving international commercial disputes by arbitration is the reason this method of dispute resolution was selected as the clinical tool to train law students through two crucial phases: the writing of memorandums for claimant and respondent and the hearing of oral argument based upon the memorandums, both settled by arbitral experts in the issues considered. The forensic and written exercises require determining questions of contract, flowing from a transaction relating to the sale or purchase of goods under the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods and other uniform international commercial law, in the context of an arbitration of a dispute under specified Arbitration Rules.

The students who participated in the Moot are; Elizabeth de Stadler, Ian Wiese, Jean van Wyk, Tebogo Mazibuko, Anita Moolman and Rico Burnett, they will be accompanied by senior Trade law lecturer, Mr Mustaqueem de Gama. They have been preparing for the Moot since October last year, when the problem for the Moot, comprising of initial statements of claim and defence by the parties’ attorneys as well as motions regarding procedural questions and exhibits, were distributed. As part of their preparation, the students practiced against a visiting Australian team during March, just prior to their departure.

Stellenbosch was the only university from Africa who participated in the moot. According to Mr Mustaqueem de Gama, who accompanied the team, this in itself is an achievement. De Gama has been involved in other moots, and describes the Vienna moot as unique, and says that it is not only one of the biggest competitions of its sort, but also the most competitive. The team chose Anita Moolman and Ian Wiese to argue for them at the moot, but De Gama said that their excellent achievement was the result of team work.

Each member of the team contributed and attended sessions of the
competition to come up with new ideas for the teams’ argument. According to Elizabeth de Stadler, who participated in the moot, it was a very educational experience. She said that they had the opportunity to meet some of the leading academics in the field of international commercial arbitration and to learn from the other teams. They would like to thank the Law Faculty, Legal Brief and the International Office for their contributions to make their participation in the Moot possible.

“The team did Africa, South Africa and the University proud, we hope that this will be the first of many good performances for us, and that our achievement will inspire more teams to participate.” De Gama said.

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