Six China-EU School of Law (CESL) students returned with an Honorable Mention for the Best Claimant Memorandum from the 14th Willem C. Vis East International Commercial Arbitration Moot in Hong Kong. “I am proud that CESL students finished as the only mainland China team scoring for the written memoranda,” coach Assistant Professor Monika Prusinowska says. In the Hong Kong pre-moot, student Que Linyao was honoured as the second best individual speaker. 128 teams from 33 countries participated in the 2017 Vis East Moot. The competition witnessed NALSAR University of Law from Hyderabad and the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS) from Kolkata slay their way to an all-Indian final, with the latter winning the moot.
Double master’s students representing the China-EU School of Law were Zhao Min, Liu Qianning, Que Linyao, Liu Renhao, Tian Yu and Meng Fanqin, while Professor Susan-Gale Wintermuth and Assistant Professor Monika Prusinowska were coaches. This team faced National Law University Delhi and National Judicial Academy, India, University of Cincinnati College of Law, USA, Universitas Katolik Parahyangan, Indonesia, and Kobe University, Japan, during the competition. “This was such an amazing experience,” student Meng Fanqin tells. “As a former debater, I used to focus on flowery language. Now I learned that without precise logic and solid facts, this cannot make sense in legal practice.” His teammate Liu Qianning says: “I am glad to have travelled to Seoul, Shanghai and Hong Kong with the Vis team. There were times we revised our memo again and again before deadline. There were also times I did oral practice and recorded myself in bed all night before pleadings. I immersed myself for days in the library and I learned how to perform like a real counsel before the arbitral tribunal. I feel so grateful for what I have learned.”
By Monika Prusinowska
