The 13th Willem C. Vis East International Commercial Arbitration Moot Court Competition (Vis (East) Moot) was held in Hong Kong from March 3th to 6th, 2016. Wuhan University Team came out on top among 115 teams from all over the world and won the top sixteen. This has not only broken the best record of Wuhan University in the competition but also is the best result for all teams coming from China.
Co-hosted by United Nations Commission on International Trade Law and the East Asia Branch of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Vis Moot is the only arbitration moot court competition hosted by the organ of United Nations and one of the larges-scale and longest-history arbitration moot court competitions. Every year in March, the competition will hold oral rounds in Hong Kong and Vienne. The competition of this year attracted a total of 115 top teams from prestigious law schools around the world, including Harvard University, Yale university, University of Freiburg and National University of Singapore. Top universities of Chinese mainland for example Peking University, Tsinghua University, Fudan University and so on also attended this competition.
Professor HE Qisheng from Law School is the chief coach for our team for Vis (East) Moot of this year. Postgraduates LI Xin, MA Nhuojie, undergraduates XIAO Qian, ZHENG Xiaoye are assistant coaches. Team members include undergraduates XU Wenqi, YE Yuting and postgraduates WU Jiao, BAO Guigong, LIU Guiqiang, PU Yuntao, REN Xiaolu and WANG Biao, among whom XU Wenqi and YE Yuting are the oralists. The great success of Wuhan University Team is not only because of the hard training and diligence of team members, but also benefits from the great support of Law School. Our team members have been engaged in intense training on practical simulations since last year. They have not only done a lot of legal study and paper research, but also invited famous alumni from Zhonglun Law Firm, Herbert Smith Freehills Law Firm, Hongkong and Switzerland to assist training.
During the round-robin, our team members competed against Gujiarat National Law University from India, Law School of DePaul University from United States, Kyoto Sangyo University from Japan and Bucharest University from Romania. In our third match of round-robin, the well-known professor Schwenzel in the field of international trade law was the president arbitrator. In the face of the delicate questions from professor Schwenzel, our team members stayed calm and impressed the arbitration tribunal with their solid legal foundation and fully preparation. In the commenting stage, the tribunal gave highly positive comments on our two oralists. Professor Schwenzel even used the phrase "almost perfect" to show his praise to XU Wenqi's outstanding performance. After four days of fierce competition, our team stood out from 115 teams and became top 32. It is one of only two mainland Chinese teams that advanced into elimination round.
In the match for top 16, Wuhan University Team confronted with traditional strong team, Bond University from Australia. In the confrontation of strong opponent, all members of Wuhan University Team actively prepared for the breakthrough. Despite the impressive performances of the two oralists of the opponent, our team members performed better. Eventually, our team successfully defeated Bond University and won the top 16 of the Vis (East) Moot.
