From March 30 to April 6, 2025, the 22nd Willem C. Vis (East) International Commercial Arbitration Moot Court Competition (“Vis East Moot”) was held in Hong Kong S.A.R., China. A total of 154 university teams from all over the world participated in the competition.

The CESL Vis HK team performed brilliantly, securing a place among the global top 32 (Sixteenth Finalist), making it one of the only five Chinese university teams (including those from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan) to advance to the global top 32. This is the second time that the CESL Team has made it to the global top 32 since they began participating in the competition in 2014. The team also won the Honorable Mention for Best Memorandum on Behalf of Claimant. In addition, WANG Yizu and JIANG Jipeng were both awarded the Honorable Mention For Best Individual Oral Advocate.

I. Team Introduction

The Vis HK team of this year was coached by Prof. Susan-Gale WINTERMUTH and Prof. Monty SILLEY. The team consisted of CAO Zejun, HOU Yida, JIANG Jipeng, LI Hanrui, WANG Yizu, XIONG Yuchen, YAN Yingjiao, and YANG Kaixiang from CESL’s double master programme 2024 intake.

Australian Barrister CHEN Ronny, along with alumni HUANG Bin, TAO Zhilin, and ZHANG Ruohan, provided meticulous guidance and strong support for the team’s training before and during the competition.

From left to right: CAO Zejun, YANG Kaixiang, LI Hanrui, JIANG Jipeng, Professor Susan-Gale WINTERMUTH, WANG Yizu, XIONG Yuchen, HOU Yida, YAN Yingjiao

II. Tournament Review

1. Memorial Writing Stage

On October 11, 2024, the Vis Moot problem was officially announced. This year’s problem involved issues of jurisdiction and admissibility, exclusion of evidence, conditions for the application and exclusion of the CISG, etc. Since the release of the problem, the team immediately began working on the Memorandum for Claimant and the Memorandum for Respondent. Four team members were responsible for the substantive part of the memorial, and four were responsible for the procedural part. Based on a thorough understanding of the problem and the legal rules involved, the team used professional legal databases such as Kluwer Arbitration and Jus Mundi, and referred to a large number of documents, English works, and cases to complete the English memorials. Eventually, the team submitted two legal memoranda, each over 100 pages long, on December 12, 2024, and January 30, 2025, respectively. In the end, the CESL Team was awarded the Honorable Mention for Best Memorandum on Behalf of Claimant.

2.Oral Hearing General Rounds

The oral general rounds of the competition took place from March 31 to April 3, 2025, at the Department of Justice in Hong Kong. WANG Yizu and JIANG Jipeng were the oral advocates. They successively faced teams from Kathmandu University School of Law from Nepal, Lloyd Law College from India, Goethe University Frankfurt from Germany, and Kwansei Gakuin University from Japan.

The participants were well-prepared and calmly responded to arbitrator questions, fully demonstrating the professional quality and good demeanor of CESL students. As a result, they successfully advanced to the global top 32 out of the 154 participating teams and entered the knock-out stage.

General Round 1: China-EU School of Law (Claimant) vs. Kathmandu University School of Law (Respondent)

General Round 2: Lloyd Law College (Claimant) vs. China-EU School of Law (Respondent)

General Round 3: China-EU School of Law (Claimant) vs. Goethe University Frankfurt (Respondent)

General Round 4: Kwansei Gakuin University (Claimant) vs. China-EU School of Law (Respondent)

3.Oral Hearing Knockout Stage

On the morning of April 4, in the round of 32 elimination match, the representative team of China-EU School of Law faced the team from University of Münster in Germany and narrowly lost to the opponent by a small margin. WANG Yizu and JIANG Jipeng both won the Honorable Mention for Best Individual Oral Advocate, in recognition of their outstanding on-site performance and strong legal advocacy skills.

University of Münster (Claimant) vs. China-EU School of Law (Respondent)

The CESL Team has achieved remarkable success in the Vis Moot and surrounding events this season. They have repeatedly won awards in various moot court and arbitration competitions held last year and this year. Through this, the solid academic and professional capabilities of the CESL students, CESL’s practical teaching outcomes and CESL's commitment to training foreign-related legal talents are fully demonstrated. From April 11 to 18, the CESL Vis Vienna team is participating in the 32nd Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot in Vienna. We look forward to the team members’ continued efforts and further success in the competition!

Text: YAN Yingjiao, Double Master 2024

Photos: LI Hanrui, Double Master 2024