The Commercial Law Development Program (CLDP) implemented a follow up four-day Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot Oral Argument Training in Mostar, on the February 1st and 2nd 2018.
The program featured presentations, video demonstrations, practice arbitral arguments, take-home assignments, and interactive practice and coaching sessions. Participants in the program were student Vis Moot teams from the University of Sarajevo, University of Banja Luka, University of Zenica, and University of Tuzla. Also law schools from Croatia, Germany, Hungary, and Qatar joined the two day training in Mostar.
On the February 3rd and 4th the seven universities competed in a preliminary competition (Pre Moot) at NSoft, a Mostar-based technology company acknowledged by Deloitte as one of the 50 fastest growing companies in Central Europe. The students pleaded in front of professional arbitrators, advisors, and NSoft’s legal team for several hours throughout the day. The competition on February 3, was followed by a professional networking event for the students hosted by NSoft to encourage student recruitment. Through this program the knowledge of BiH law students and university faculty of international commercial law and arbitration will develop and institutionalize Vis Moot programs in universities throughout BiH. Following this program, the law students will go on to compete in the Annual Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot, the pre-eminent moot competition on commercial law and arbitration, held annually in Vienna, Austria in March.
The Pre Moot is a simulation of the actual competition that will take place in Vienna in March 2018, where the students will compete with over 290 law schools from across the globe. The idea is to expose the students to networking opportunities with companies, lawyers, judges and arbitrators that should result in several students gaining employment following the competition. Also, representatives from BiH and international IT companies served as volunteer judges/arbitrators on the competition thus promoted corporate community outreach, and so utilized this event as a potential recruitment opportunity.
The general outcome of the program is to improve the knowledge of BiH law students and university faculty of international commercial law and arbitration and so help develop institutionalized Vis Moot programs in universities throughout BiH. Through continuous engagement of past participants and a robust BiH Vis Moot alumni network, BiH will sustain participation in the Vis Moot and thereby steadily improve the state of legal education and the cadre of legal experts on international commercial law and arbitration. Also through the program, CLDP hopes to create networking opportunities with IT companies and legal professionals that will result in positive employment for participating students.
This year, there was a record number of BiH and foreign schools participating in the program, as well as 25 volunteer arbitrators, around 65 participants in total. AmCham BiH president Ms. Mirna Milanović Lalić was one of the arbitrators/judges on the Pre Moot competition.
