34th Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot 2026-27, Vienna

The Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot is a competition for law students to foster the study and practice of international commercial sales law and arbitration. It is run by the Association for the Organisation and Promotion of the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot and has been held in Vienna every year since 1994. The problem always concerns a dispute arising out of a contract of sale between parties whose countries are party to the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, resolved by arbitration under a set of institutional rules chosen for that edition. The organisers state that students from all countries are eligible; in the 32nd Moot (2024-25), 384 law school teams from 90 jurisdictions took part.

The 34th Vis Moot runs across the 2026-27 academic year and culminates in the oral hearings in Vienna from 19 to 25 March 2027. The official welcome ceremony is on Friday, 19 March 2027; the general rounds of argument run from Saturday to Tuesday, 20-23 March 2027; the elimination rounds run from Tuesday evening to Thursday, 23-25 March 2027; and the closing ceremony is on Thursday, 25 March 2027. Everything before that stage happens remotely: the problem, the requests for clarification and the two written memoranda.

• Every law school is eligible. Institutions that are not law schools are normally also eligible if the study of law is part of the programme.
• Each participating law school or other institution may enter only one team.
• Team members must be students registered at the institution, either for a first degree or for an advanced degree including a PhD, and need not be from the country in which the institution is located.
• Eligibility is assessed as of the date the memorandum for claimant is due in December.
• No student who has been licensed to practise law is eligible without the permission of a Vis Moot Director. Students at bar preparation institutions who are simultaneously working in a law office must ask for a determination by sending a full CV to admin@vismoot.org.

The rules require two members of the team to present the argument in each oral hearing, so a team must have at least two members. There is no maximum limit on team size; past teams have ranged from two to thirteen members, and the organisers suggest four to six works best. Different members may argue in different hearings, so between two and eight members can appear in the oral hearings.

Two restrictions apply to oralists. A student who argued in an elimination round in a previous in-person Moot, in Vienna or in Hong Kong, may remain on the team but may not argue again. A student may not argue in both the Vis Moot in Vienna and the Vis (East) Moot in Hong Kong in the same year.

The problem is released on 2 October 2026. Teams may file requests for clarification until 6 November 2026, and the clarifications issued in response form part of the record. Each team then files a memorandum for claimant by 10 December 2026. That memorandum is exchanged with another team, which prepares the memorandum for respondent in reply by 21 January 2027; those two teams also argue against each other in the general rounds in Vienna. Submission of the memorandum for claimant by the due date is treated as part of the registration process, because a team that misses it cannot be paired and is dropped from the Moot.

The registration fee is 800 Euro per team. It is the same regardless of how many members the team has. The fee must be paid by 11 December 2026 unless the Directors of the Moot have given specific permission for later payment. All other costs, including travel to Vienna, accommodation, food and any Austrian visa fees, are borne by the team.

Registration is completed through the Moot's own portal at myvismoot.org, which opens for team registrations at 12:00 AM Vienna time on 1 September 2026. A registration becomes definitive only when three steps are complete: submission of a duly completed registration form, payment of the 800 Euro registration fee, and submission of the memorandum for claimant by the due date. The closing date for submission of the registration form is 12 November 2026.

Indian law schools compete in Vienna every year and no separate qualification is required. The Moot's official participating-teams list for the current edition carries 24 Indian institutions, including the National Law School of India University, NALSAR, National Law University Delhi, National Law University Jodhpur, Gujarat National Law University, Dr Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Hidayatullah National Law University, WBNUJS, Government Law College Mumbai and O.P. Jindal Global University. Teams travelling from India need a Schengen visa for Austria; the Moot furnishes visa information to registered teams around the time the memorandum for claimant is submitted, and the deadline to submit details for visa applications is 4 January 2027.