Oh the Vis Moot. What a weird collection of sounds. Vis. Moot. I recall attending and someone asking in a thick German accent "vat is dis ting a muut?" Well, here I'll tell you.
The Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot is an annual law school competition. It takes place in two parallel competitions, the original one in Vienna and one in Hong Kong.
According to the website, "The purpose of the Vis Moot is to foster the study of international commercial law and arbitration and provide a practical training to students for resolving international business disputes."
It's effectively a performance - law students act out a legal argument. These is an elaborate 50 page "problem" which is a lengthy description of a legal dispute between two fictional companies in two different countries. The problem is (broadly) divided into two different areas - an issue related to a procedural issue in international arbitration and an issue related to an international treaty, the Vienna Convention on the International Sale of Goods.
For the law students, the problem is released in October, you draft briefs in December and January and finally argue for both sides in several rounds in person in early Spring in either Vienna or Hong Kong.
There's a new problem every year, argued in the spring. 2027 will mark the 34th Moot. I participated in the 19th Moot, which now makes me feel quite old.
It was a fun time and you got to meet a bunch of people from around the world. There was extensive preparation for this, and many different pre-moots around the world. I got to go to Paris in the spring when it was beautiful. I walked through the Vienna Easter Market a few weeks later. It was neat.
I will say that by the time you did your third argument in Vienna, you were pretty sick of the thing. We won our first knockout round and then lost the next day. We were all pretty ok with that. Got to spend a few days hanging out in Vienna after the snows went away.
Have I used any of this in my daily life? Sort of. I have negotiated sales of equipment between the US and Canada where the seller refused to deviate from "the law of Quebec" (separate confusing conversation). I have not participated in any international arbitration, but the knowledge and pitfalls have served me well in drafting a lot of arbitration provisions for domestic and international contracts.
In all, it was a great experience and I learned a lot. Would highly recommend.