About the Edinburgh Vis Moot

The Edinburgh Law School’s Vis Moot project was established in 2010/2011 by Dr Simone Lamont-Black. Participation in the Vis Moot is an extra-curricular activity offered by Edinburgh Law School to Masters students.

At the beginning of each academic year the Law School selects a number of LLM students who have expressed an interest in competing as team members. All LLM students are eligible to apply and are asked to complete an application form and may be called for an interview as part of the selection process.

The work required by this activity is extensive, but also a lot of fun, and the skills developed by team members are an excellent addition to any CV. If you have applied to the University of Edinburgh’s LLM programmes and participating in 2020/21 is of interest then please see the Edinburgh Team and Contact pages for further information.

Coaching

Since September 2011, the Edinburgh team has benefited from the support of postgraduate students and others acting as dedicated Vis moot team coaches.

For the 2019 – 2020 academic year, the team was co-coached by Valerie Boehm (an LLM student and former participant in the Moot) and Fergus Whyte who had previously coached the team.

Between 2017 and 2019, the role of coach was been occupied by Fergus Whyte, a New Zealand qualified barrister and solicitor, former civil litigator and former Edinburgh LLM student.

In 2016/17 the team was ably coached by Lucas Clover Alcolea (part-time LLM student at Edinburgh Law School and former Vis Moot Participant), following in the foot-steps of our 2015/16 coach Snjólaug Árnadóttir (former PhD student at the Edinburgh Law School and former Vis Moot Participant) and the 2011 – 2015 coach, Neil Dowers (former PhD student at Edinburgh Law School and Vis Moot Participant). Both have been instrumental in the success of the Edinburgh Vis Moot activity and have directed and motivated previous teams with great skill and competence. During the years 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 David Holloway, London barrister and arbitration specialist, joined the coaching team and helped building the teams’ successes.

The Edinburgh Pre-moot and other support

The School has expanded the preparation of its team and Dr Lamont-Black together with Neil Dowers, Snjólaug Árnadóttir, Arantxa Gutiérrez Raymondova, and now Kane Abry-Diaw de Baye, have organised annual Pre-Moot events in Edinburgh since 2011/ 2012. The Edinburgh Pre-Moot has developed into a popular and enjoyable gathering of international teams and arbitrators, hosting teams and arbitrators from France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Turkey.

As well as the visitors one of the distinguishing features of the Edinburgh Pre-Moot is the involvement and engagement of the local legal profession with the event. We are very grateful to those professionals who give their time generously to the event and this is of great benefit to the Edinburgh team. For further information please see Edinburgh Pre-Moot tabs.

Between September 2013 and May 2016 the Vis Moot was trialled and delivered as a full 40 credit LLM module developed by Dr Lamont- Black. This meant that the moot formed an integral part of the team’s LLM studies and enabled students to obtain the academic credit which befitted the hard work and dedication required of such participation. While the module is currently not available as a LLM course, participation is still possible as an extra-curricular activity.

The Edinburgh Vis Moot project has also greatly benefited from sponsorship and support given by the Faculty of Advocates, Hogan Lovells, London, the Scottish Arbitration Centre and Dundas & Wilson, now CMS, as well as by members of the local arbitration community. The School of Law is very grateful for their support.