For the 24th consecutive year, PACE University organizes the "Willem C. Vis Moot International Commercial Arbitration Competition", which takes place yearly in Vienna, Austria during April. In September before the competition, a Mock Case with fictional facts is sent to teams of law students with a specific set of rules and laws applicable to their case. Each team has to draft a Memorandum for Claimant and a Memorandum for Respondent. Starting January, the team starts working on the oral part of the competition by completing training on advocacy and public speaking in order to present best the arguments in their Memoranda. During the competition in April each team pleads against four other teams before prominent international tribunals. Only 64 teams out of over 300 qualify to compete in the elimination rounds leading up to the final.

Prior to the official competition, several universities around the world organize Pre-moots, practice rounds for teams to help prepare them for the real competition.


In 2017, USEK took part for the first time in the Vis Moot Competition, in which more than 300 universities from all around the world participated. The USEK team attended two pre-moots: The Middle East Pre-moot held in Kuwait this year and the PCA Pre-moot held in The Hague by the Permanent Court of Arbitration.

The experience was an incredible opportunity for students to be involved in a full-fledged arbitration procedure with all the challenges of a real arbitration. The USEK team got to learn how to draft written memoranda and present oral pleadings. Most importantly, this competition helped the team to meet other international law students, make contact with the international arbitration society, and build friendships with students from all around the world!
Eager and ambitious, USEK’s first-ever Vis team lived up to the challenge and managed to impress opposing teams and international tribunals before which it had pleaded; the team ranked fourth in the Kuwait Pre-moot and went on to reach the semi-finals, and team member Joanne Samaha was awarded the title of ‘Best Oralist’.