On Monday, March 9, Murdoch Law School hosted an Exhibition Moot in preparation for their team’s departure for the oral rounds of the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot competition, which will be held in Vienna from April 4 to 7.

The Murdoch team argued via video link against the team from City University of Hong Kong in the Freehills Electronic Moot Court. Murdoch’s speakers, Samantha Lord and James Pearse, represented the Claimant in the dispute, with City University of Hong Kong speakers Carmen Chan and Edward Tang pleading the case for the Respondents. This year's Vis Moot problem relates to a cross-border dispute that arose between an automobile importer and a vehicle distributor, after a shipment of vehicles turned out to be defective.

The parties were heard by a panel of three arbitrators, Professor Phil Evans (Building and Construction Arbitrator, and Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame), Ms Johanna Weaver (Maxim Litigation Consultants) and Mr David Jenaway (Freehills).

Our Vis Moot team is comprised of Rupert Baker, Samantha Lord, Peter Sadler and James Pearse. The team will be accompanied by their coach and mentor, Mr Sam Luttrell, and first-year Law student Daniel Harrop. Daniel secured his place with the team as an observer and researcher as a year 12 student in 2008, by winning the Murdoch University Most Outstanding Mock Trial Student Scholarship. The team will compete in pre-moot competitions in Paris and Leuven in the lead-up to the oral rounds in Vienna.