Report on the CEPANI40 Pre-Moot

The 8th edition of the Brussels Pre-Moot to the annual Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot (Vis Moot), was kindly hosted by White & Case LLP and Linklaters LLP, under the auspices of CEPANI40. It gathered 17 universities from all over the world and more than 130 lawyers acting as mock arbitrators. The luncheons organised on both days, and the cocktail reception at the end of the first one, allowed the arbitrators and students to connect, exchange on their experience and share war stories.

The University of Bonn won this year’s edition. They were opposed to New South Wales University in the finals, arbitrated by the representatives of the main BeNeLux arbitration institutions, Françoise Lefèvre (for CEPANI, The Belgian Center for Arbitration and Mediation), Denis Philippe (for the Luxembourg Arbitration Association) and Piotr Wilinski (for the Netherlands Arbitration Institute (NAI)). Harvard Law School and Erasmus University Rotterdam were the two other semi-finalists.

In Vienna, the Final Round of the 31st Vis Moot was held on 28 March 2024 between Bucerius Law School (Hamburg), which ended up prevailing, and the University of Vienna. The teams appeared before an ICC arbitral tribunal (this year’s moot being under the ICC Rules of Arbitration) consisting of president Claudia Salomon and co-arbitrators Cláudio Finkelstein and Milena Djordjevic.