Sofia Vis Pre-Moot was held in the BCCI

Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) and the International Moot Court Competitions Association (IMCCA) organized for the third year in a row Sofia Vis Pre-Moot, a competition in the field of international commercial law and international commercial arbitration which took place between 10 and 12 March 2017.

This year’s event coincided with the 120^th anniversary of the Arbitration Court at the BCCI and marked the beginning of the anniversary’s celebration. The Arbitration Court at the BCCI is not only one of the most renowned arbitral institutions in Southeastern Europe but also one of the oldest in Europe.

The conference which always takes place before the opening of the competition developed into the first ever Sofia Arbitration Day. The conference encompassed hot topics in the field of international commercial arbitration and international commercial law, presented by lecturers from Bulgaria, Germany, and Switzerland – lawyers, judges, and arbitrators.

The event was sponsored by the Bulgarian Association of Independent Winegrowers and the law firms “Tsvetkova, Bebov, Komarevski” and “Wolf Theiss”.

Sofia Pre-Moot is a simulation of international arbitration proceedings related to the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. It is held in English and its purpose is to help the participating universities prepare their teams for the international moot court competition Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot. It is organized in Vienna in the last 22 years and in 2016 more than 330 teams from 64 countries around the world took part. Two Bulgarian teams participated, as well.

Each year before the oral rounds pre-moots are organized in cities like Paris, New York, Milan, Munich and Belgrade where different university teams gather and plead against each other. Sofia was a host of such a pre-moot in February-March 2015 for the first time when five teams from Bulgaria, Macedonia and Romania participated. The teams of Sofia University and Skopje University then went on to win prizes at the competition in Vienna a month later.

A year later, Sofia and BCCI in particular hosted again an event in which even more teams – eight – participated, and the interest to the event was even bigger.

In the first day of Sofia Vis PreMoot (10 March) a seminar on hot topics in the field of arbitration and commercial law was organized. The teams’ pleadings were held on 11 and 12 March.

12 teams attended the event, including universities from Switzerland, Italy, Japan, Macedonia, Serbia, Greece, Turkey and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the three Bulgarian universities – Sofia University, UNWE, and VTU.

More information is available at the following website: http://sofiapremoot.com/