The moot spring season on the occasion of XX Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot started off with great success of our students on pre-moot tournaments in Basel, Freiburg, Milan and Dusseldorf. Competing against teams from Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland and numerous other countries, our students showcased great advocacy talent and ability to think on feet by pleading before arbitration experts from Europe – and got high praise from their peers and other participants.

After preparatory rounds in Basel Pre-Moot held from 9 to 10 February 2013, the team of our students – Andrijana Mišović, Dragana Nikolić, Dina Prokić and Dejan Sivčev – accompanied by Marko Jovanović, lecturer at the Faculty of Law, continued the mooting experience on a friendly pre-moot match organized by the University of Freiburg on 11 and 12 February 2013. The hospitality of our Freiburg hosts matched the excellence of Freiburg team’s mooting skills and profound knowledge of international sales law and arbitration for which they are globally known for as long as the Vis Moot exists.

Our students continued their preparations for the Vienna Moot at VI Milan Pre-Moot organized by the Chamber of Arbitration of Milan on 22 February 2013, where the Belgrade team scored the second place winning over Universities from Milan, Lausanne, Fribourg, Pavia, Turin, Genoa and Paris. After three rounds of intense legal battle, the first place on the Pre-Moot went to Heidelberg University – which took home the championship position by scoring the biggest number of points. The students were accompanied in Milan by their coach Doc. Dr Milena Đorđević, Assistant Professor at the Belgrade Faculty of Law and assistant-coach Uroš Živković, lecturer at the Faculty. See a short video on Milan Pre-Moot>>

Prior to pleading in the official rounds in the Milan Pre-Moot, our students had a great opportunity to be part of informal arbitration hearings against the team from the Bocconi University. The previous years of successful moot participation in Milan and Belgrade have strengthen the ties between the students and coaches of Belgrade and Bocconi teams that are keeping the tradition of annual mooting, elevating the overall level of this unique learning experience.

Finally, the Belgrade pre-moot tour ended in Dusseldorf, where the students, accompanied by Marko Jovanović, attended the CEAC Pre-Moot Competition and tested their legal arguments and advocacy skills against teams from Germany. The overall impression of the arbitrators and competing teams was that Belgrade, once again, has a great team of exceptional students that unambiguously showed that quality of education obtained at our Faculty stands equal to the level and quality of education offered at top European universities.

The final touch to Belgrade team’s preparation will be given at our own Belgrade Open Pre-Moot that will take place from 15-17 March 2013 at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law. The Pre-Moot will gather 45 teams from 26 different countries during these three days of friendly legal battles with the aim to enable them to shine on their path to Vienna finals.