From the 15 February to the 20 February 2021 the Institute for Procedural Law and Attorney Regulations (IPA), for the first time in cooperation with the German Federal Bar (BRAK) and the German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation (IRZ), invited 60 teams from universities from all over the world to the 15th Hannover PreMoot. Apart from the 60 Vis Moot teams from almost 40 different countries, around 190 practitioners, coaches and alumni accepted the invitation to support the event as arbitrators.
Due to the ongoing global pandemic, this year’s Hannover PreMoot was held virtually. While this meant that there were none of the usual get-togethers in the evening, it also meant that twice as many teams as usual were able to join as well as arbitrators from all over the world who did not have to do extensive and expensive traveling.
Even without personal meetings, students and practitioners were able to connect during the many pleading sessions in preparation for the finals for the Willem C. Vis Moot Court in Hong Kong and Vienna. The Willem C. Vis Moot Court is an international competition in the field of international commercial arbitration during which students act as legal counsels and practice their legal writing and pleading skills in the English language. During the first stage of the competition, the participating teams have to draft a claimant as well as a respondent memorandum which are based on a fictitious and challenging case. Afterwards, during the second stage, the teams start their preparations for the oral phase which culminates in finals which usually take place in Hong Kong and Vienna. Like last year, the finals will also be held virtually. During this oral phase, the teams are practicing their pleading skills against teams from other universities while participating in so-called PreMoots such as the Hannover PreMoot, one of the largest event of its kind in Europe.
Day 1, Monday 15 February: The First day of the PreMoot Conference
Unlike the previous years, the PreMoot Conference, was extended from one day to four days. During the conference, different practitioners from around the globe shared their knowledge in the field of arbitration in lectures and panel discussions.
The day started with some welcoming words from Prof. Dr. Volker Epping (president of the Leibniz Universität Hannover), Dr. Frauke Bachler (General Director of the German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation), Dr. Thomas Remmers (Vice President of the German Federal Bar and president of the bar in Celle) and Prof. Dr. Christian Wolf (executive director of the Institute for Procedural Law and Attorney Regulations and responsible academic teacher for the Willem C. Vis Moot Court in Hannover).
Afterwards, Prof. Dr. Stefan Kröll (Professor for International Dispute Resolution at Bucerius Law School in Hamburg and one of the directors of the Willem C. Vis Mot Court) addressed the German contribution to the CISG and the Vis. Then, there was a roundtable discussion regarding the rule of law with the participants Dr. Ulrich Wessels (president of the BRAK), Donald Deya (Arusha, Tanzania), Raphael Tay (member of the executive committee of LAWASIA) and Konstantin Dobrynin (Deputy President of the Russian Federal Bar Association). The discussion was led by Dr. Veronika Horrer (director of the German Federal Bar). Then, Nicola Zeibig, LL.M Stockholm (Linklaters) gave an introduction to arbitration. Next, Prof. Dr. Ingeborg Schwenzer (Dean of Swiss International Law School and author of a well-known commentary on the CISG) talked about the system of Legal Defects under Art. 42 CISG. The first day of the PreMoot Conference endet with a presentation by Alexandra Spuijbroek (DLA Piper) and Jaschar Mirkhani (Latham & Watkins) on the topic of how to structure a pleading.
Day 2, 16 February:
The second day of the PreMoot Conference started with an introduction by Caroline Ming (Executive Director and General Counsel at the Swiss Chambers’ Arbitration Institution (SCAI)) on the SCAI Arbitration Rules, followed by a presentation by Dr. Nassim Eslami (judge and press spokesperson at the administrative court of Hannover) on the topic of transparency and publicity of arbitration proceedings. Then, Prof. Dr. Antje Baumann (BAUMANN Resolving Disputes, honorary professor at the University of Osnabrück) talked about international IP arbitration. Afterwards, Anna-Lena Beate, LL.M KU Leuven (Policy Officer for the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy, UNCITRAL) and José Angelo Estrella Faria (Principal Legal Officer at UNCITRAL) gave updates on recent developments at UNCITRAL. Later, Dr. Stephan Wilske (Advisory Committee Member of the Swiss Arbitration Academy (SAA)) gave a presentation on the art or the problem of Guerrilla tactics in arbitration. The second day of the PreMoot conference concluded with a teaching session by John Faulk (American speaker trainer) on techniques for (online) mooting success.
Day 3, 17 February:
The first presentation on the third day of the PreMoot Conference was given by Dr. Victor von Essen (Deputy Secretary General of the German Arbitration Institute (DIS)) on the topic of the right to be heard in virtual proceedings. This was followed by a panel discussion with the participants Djamshid Turdaliev (executive board of the chamber of advocates of the Republic of Uzbekistan), Guy Segalovitch (Co-Chairman of the Committee for the Relations of the Israeli Bar with Germany and Austria), Amarjit Singh Bedi (Joint General Secretary in the Bar Association of India) and Ivan Grechkivsky, LL.M London (Ukrainian Bar Association). The discussion was led by Swetlana Schaworonkowa, LL.M (Senior Legal Advisor at the International Department of the German Federal Bar). Afterwards, Hannes Ingwersen, LL.M Stockholm and Kirstin Schwedt, LL.M Köln/Paris I (both Linklaters) gave a presentation on the topic of equal and legal representation in arbitration. This was followed by an introduction to the Munich Rules by Dr. Karl J.T. Wach (Wach und Meckes und Partner). Finally, Dr. Sven Hasenstab (partner at BRANDI) talked about how to convince the arbitrator (online).
Day 4, 18 February:
The last day of the PreMoot Conference started with a presentation by Dr. Patricia Nacimiento (ICSID) on the participation of third parties in arbitration. Afterwards, Francois Barré, Rebekka Stumpfrock (General Counsel at Porsche Deutschland GmbH), Elena Kadelburger (Underwood Solicitors LLP) and Agata Adamczyk (Adamczyk, Liber & Associates) talked together with host Riad Khalil Hassanain (German Federal Bar) about how to manage the first steps into the profession of arbitration and law in general. Then, Marcus Büscher and Thilo Marenbach (both ECOVIS) discussed the New (German) Supply Chain Act. Later, Marcel Wegmüller (co-CEO and co-founder of Nivalion AG) gave an introduction to third party funding. The final presentation of the PreMoot Conference was given by Harprabdeep Singh (Alan Leon SC’s Chambers) during which he gave valuable tips on ow to raise one’s pleading to the next level.
Days 5 and 6: The Pleadings
After four days of interesting lectures and discussions, it was finally time for the teams to show what they had learned so far. In a marathon of five pleading sessions on Friday and five more pleading sessions on Saturday, the “mooties” displayed impressive pleading skills and weathered even the toughest questions posed by arbitrators. Even though there was no evening get-together with wine and dine on either of the evenings unlike usual, some mooties still had to function on only little sleep as some had to wake up in the middle of the night due to the time difference. But as some coaches say, “You have to be able to recite your pleading if I wake you in the middle of the night!” – so the Hannover PreMoot served as a good practice for this skill.
Aside from being a great practice for the mooties on their journey to Hong Kong and/or Vienna, the pleading sessions also gave them the opportunity to connect with other mooties and practitioners from around the globe. At 7 pm CET, the last pleading sessions ended, thereby concluding the first virtual Hannover PreMoot.
Until next year, hopefully in person!
