We at Riga Graduate School of Law are really happy to welcome the 16th annual Riga Vis Pre-Moot at our premises for a kick-off event on 22 February, and competition rounds on 23 and 24 February. This year, 18 teams of law students from across Europe have gathered in Riga for pleadings and a chance to polish their oral advocacy skills and arguments before the general rounds of Willem C. Vis Moot in Vienna.
This year, there are teams from the University of Bayreuth, Riga Graduate School of Law, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, University of Latvia, University of Basel, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, University of Pavia, University of Zurich, Vilnius University, University of Passau, University of Lausanne, Kyiv Mohyla Academy, University of Tallinn, University of Helsinki, Charles University, University of Erlangen–Nuremberg, Humboldt University, and Moldova State University. We wish good luck to all the teams, but keep our fingers crossed for the most special team of our own RGSL Bachelor students Rūdolfs Riekstiņš, Patrīcija France, Beāte Bauga and Miane Le Roux.
The Riga Vis Pre-Moot event is organised by the Latvian Moot Association and hosted by law offices Sorainen, Cobalt, Ellex Klavins, TGS Baltic and Riga Graduate School of Law.
The Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot or Vis Moot is an international moot court competition. Since 1994, it has been held annually in Vienna, Austria attracting more than 300 law schools from all around the world and spurring the creation of more than 20 pre-moots each year before the actual rounds are held in Vienna. It is the largest moot in the world for its field and is considered a grand slam or major moot.
The objective of the Vis Moot is to foster study in the area of international commercial arbitration and encourage the resolution of business disputes by arbitration. The problem for the moot is always based on an international sales transaction subjected to the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, 1980 (also referred to as the CISG) and involves procedural issues of arbitration. The moot consists of submitting written memoranda prior to the moot on designated dates for both sides of the dispute.