Case & Rules

The Case

The moot problem is a fictional dispute arising from a cross-border sale of goods. Like most real commercial arbitrations, it has two intertwined layers:

Liability: who breached the contract?

Teams argue this under the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG), the sales-law backbone of a large share of world trade.

Quantum: what is the loss actually worth?

The claim includes lost profits, and teams must build, defend and attack a damages calculation, i.e., causation, lost volume, mitigation, interest, not just cite the law. Putting a credible number on the dispute is as much a part of winning as the legal argument.

Legal framework
  • Substantive law: UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG)
  • Seat of arbitration: a fictional state whose arbitration act adopts the UNCITRAL Model Law verbatim
  • Procedure: ad hoc arbitration under the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules
  • Why fictional? Neutral, internationally recognised instruments give every team from every country an identical starting line –⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ no home-jurisdiction advantage.

How the competition works

Each team pleads twice in the preliminary rounds, once as Claimant and once as Respondent, against two different opponents. The pairings mirror the written phase: in every hearing, the Respondent argues against the very memorandum it answered in writing.

Each side fields two advocates: one argues liability under the CISG, the other argues quantum –⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ the lost-profits calculation. Panels of academics and practitioners score every advocate individually; the two best teams meet in the public Final on 27 November, which is decided on the quality of advocacy. Afterwards, the tribunal debates openly how it would have decided the case on the merits.

Full details (schedule, memoranda requirements, timing, scoring and awards) are in the Competition Rules below.

Documents

  • Competition Rules (PDF) –⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ available in September 2026
  • Moot Problem / Case file (PDF) –⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ available from 5 October 2026
  • Procedural Orders –⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ published as issued
  • Post-event report –⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ December 2026
  • Aftermovie –⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ December 2026

The project is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through the V4 Gen Mini Grants programme of the International Visegrad Fund.