Matheson Trainees selected to represent Ireland at Vis Moot

Aoife Kearney and Conor McKeown

14/02/2017

The Law Society of Ireland held trials for the Vis Moot team in September.  We saw this as a good opportunity to develop our advocacy, research and drafting skills, not to mention the chance to visit Vienna!  The trials involved written and oral submissions on the UN Convention on the International Sale of Goods.

It was an honour to be selected to represent the Law Society of Ireland in this prestigious competition.  The aim of the Vis Moot is to foster a greater understanding of international commercial law and arbitration.  In particular, we were excited to learn about arbitration – an area of law which neither of us had studied before.

We started by studying previous Vis Moot problems and winning submissions.  In October, this year's problem was released.  The problem itself is long and complex.  It consists of a hypothetical contractual dispute including the request for arbitration from the Claimant, the Respondent's answer, excerpts from the contracts in question and various witness statements.  We had weekly meetings to discuss the evidence, legal issues and potential arguments, and to review each other's drafts.

The first written submission, for the Claimant, was due in December.  After we submitted this we received the Claimant's submission of one of our opponents in the preliminary rounds.  We had to respond to this on behalf of the Respondent.  This second written submission was due in January.  The workload meant that while everyone else was enjoying their Christmas break, we were burning the midnight oil.  It was really interesting to argue from "the other" side.  What had been our greatest strengths became our greatest weaknesses.  Previously-beloved arguments were now torn apart.

After submitting the Respondent's submission, we started weekly practice sessions for the oral hearings.  Participants in previous Vis Moots have been very helpful in preparing us for the competition.  We hope to draw upon their experience to strengthen our performance.  We will have a break from these weekly sessions for the exams in March, but then it's back to business.

We will travel to Vienna for the competition in early April.  There will be four preliminary rounds, and then the top 64 teams will progress to the final rounds.  The Law Society of Ireland will be competing against teams from China, Georgia, Kuwait and the Netherlands in the preliminary rounds.  We are both looking forward to taking part in the oral hearings in Vienna.  This will be the culmination of months of effort.  We are grateful to Matheson for its support as we take part in the Vis Moot.