After organizing the well attended V Belgrade Arbitration Conference, the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law had the honor of hosting the sixth annual Belgrade Open Pre-Moot practice rounds for the Willem C Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot on 16 and 17 March 2013. This year the Belgrade Open hosted more than 500 participants – students, coaches, arbitrators – and gathered the teams from 47 universities coming from 27 countries of the world: from North and South America, over Europe and Asia to Australia and Oceania. Like in previous years, the Belgrade Open attracted great interest of law schools worldwide. Consequently, the waiting list for the participation at the Pre-Moot was rather long. By the number of participants, the Belgrade Open Pre-Moot grew into the world’s biggest pre-moot for the Willem C. Vis Moot.

During the two days of pre-moot, more than 130 practice sessions took place in the seminar rooms of the Faculty and the offices of Karanović/Nikolić law firm, Nikolić, Kokanović, Otašević law firm and American Chamber of Commerce in Serbia. See Schedule of Hearings >>

The participants of the Pre-Moot had the opportunity to test the persuasiveness of their arguments before highly competent and renowned lawyers, arbitrators, judges, academics and other practitioners coming from all over the world. The success of the Belgrade Open Pre-Moot is further proven by the fact that this year more than one fourth of the teams that participated in Belgrade practice rounds qualified for the elimination rounds at the Moot in Vienna (top 64 universities), held in the last week of March 2013.

The sponsors of this event did their best to provide to the participants of the Belgrade Open Pre-Moot not only the practice sessions but also a rich social agenda. Thanks to their support a welcome cocktail has been organized in the Bona Fides Faculty Lounge (El Derecho). Additionally, the law firm Moravčević, Vojnović and partners in cooperation with Schoenherr threw a big party for all the participants of the Pre-Moot in the former shopping center “Kluz”. The Tourist Organization of Belgrade hosted the closing ceremony at the Belgrade City Hall and presented the main tourist attractions of the Serbian capital. The opening of the Pre-moot was preceded by the cocktail for arbitrators held in the offices of Karanović/Nikolić law firm.

The organization of the sixth Belgrade Open Pre-Moot would not have been possible without the generous support of our co-organizers: German Institution of Arbitration (DIS), GIZ Open Regional Fund for South-East Europe, Tourist Organization of Belgrade, the City of Belgrade and the law firms Karanović-Nikolić, Vojnović and partners in cooperation with Schoenherr, CMS Belgrade and Nikolić, Kokanović & Otašević, Moravčević.

Photo Gallery:

Cocktail for Arbitrators >>

Hearings at the American Chamber of Commerce in Serbia>>

Hearings at the Karanović-Nikolić law firm>>

Hearings at the Law Faculty>>

Closing ceremony at the City Hall>>

Pre-Moot video>>