The University of Queensland's T.C. Beirne School of Law mooting team has been ranked first in the world for the second consecutive year at the prestigious Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot.
Team members Peter Black, Jonathan Cheyne, Avryl Lattin, Annelies Moens and Carly Roberts were rated at the top of 70 teams from 30 countries which took part in the 1999 finals in Vienna this week.
The Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot pits students in a competition to discuss a hypothetical legal case. The moot is organised by the Institute of International Commercial Law at the Pace University School of Law, New York.
The objective of the competition is to train the law leaders of tomorrow in principles of international commercial law and techniques of international commercial arbitration. The UQ team was one of 80 from law schools throughout the world invited to participate.
The problem in this year's competition involved a controversy arising out of a hypothetical international sale of goods subject to the Vienna Convention 1980 and the International Arbitration Rules of the American Arbitration Association.
Peter Black and Avryl Lattin were among 10 recipients of best oralist awards, being placed third and sixth respectively out of about 400 participating students, Professor Gabriel Moens of the Law School said.
In addition to being ranked first in 1998 and 1999, the Queensland University Law School team won the Willem C. Vis International Commecial Arbitration Competition in 1997.
"The winner of the moot is not necessarily the highest ranked team," Professor Moens said.
"The Willem C. Vis Moot starts with a preliminary round during which teams compete in four simulated arbitration hearings, and the highest ranked team is the one that has the highest aggregate score in these four moots. Our team came first.
The University of Queensland team's success this week came shortly after law firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth announced it would continue its sponsorship of the Law School mooting program for a further three years at $25,000 a year. Law School teams compete in three annual moots: the Willem C. Vis Moot, the Jessup International Law Moot and the John Marshall International Moot Court competition in information technology and privacy law.
For more information, contact Professor Gabriel Moens (telephone 07 3365 2220, email g.moens@mailbox.uq.edu.au).
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