Following Legally India’s initial report of [[Nalsar Hyderabad]]’s victory at the [[Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot, Vienna]], the final results have now been announced giving a total of 110 MPL points to participating teams. The Nalsar winners told Legally India the secret to winning and losing in Vienna.

Apart from winners Nalsar, honourable mentions were awarded to [[NUJS Kolkata]], [[ILS Pune]] and [[M.S.Ramaiah Law College Bangalore|M. S. Ramaiah College of Law Bangalore]].

Nalsar Hyerabad took home 40 MPL points for defeating University College, London in the final rounds of this Tier 1 global championship moot. Nalsar speaker Ishita Bhardwaj won an honorable mention citation for the Martin Domke Award for individual oralists.

Both the ILS Pune speakers, Madhupreetha Elango and Ravi Raghunath and M. S. Ramaiah speaker Monica Patil bagged similar honorable mention citations for their oralist performances.

NUJS Kolkata won the honourable mention citation for the best respondent memorandum. Both ILS Pune and NUJS Kolkata also won honorable mentions for their team orals performance.

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Menezes said: “We worked really hard for a good eight months for the moot. Before that, we worked on the 16th Vis moot problem and cleared the challengers at Nalsar. This time the moot problem was great. It was very well drafted. However, unlike the other Vis problems, this problem was biased in favour claimants. Most other Vis problems are usually balanced.”

Menezes praised the quality of judging during the moot as “first class”. “I earlier thought that the judging could be subjective. But, I was wrong. These judges come year after year to judge Vis Vienna. There were judges who have been coming for the last 13 years. They are very experienced. The moot is not tiring if you enjoy it. I enjoy arbitration.”

Menezes said that the only reason why Indian teams do not break is because the moot has not been institutionalised in Indian law schools. “Out of the 19 Vis moots, the University of Hamburg has won the moot 5 times. NUJS Kolkata is the only other Indian team that has performed really well at the Vis. This is because they began to institutionalise the Vis mooting culture.

“Mooters every year pass down what they have learnt at Vis. Vis is more of a simulation than any other moot. Other international moots are more like an academic exercise – you need to have knowledge, appropriate court manners, etc. At Vis, you have practitioners who are looking for a commercial solution – you need to be reasonable, you need concede points at times and suggest suitable alternatives. Vis is not like an international moot before the ICJ where you just quote leading precedents. At Vis, you need to present illustrations rather than precedents and you have to use both common law and civil law authorities.”

“Indian teams go to Vis with a very domestic moot mindset or an international law moot mindset. At Vis, you need not argue based on your memo, you can just argue about anything. It is so real world. You just need to have a holistic understanding of the subject in the context of the business involved. Unlike any other domestic or international moot where 20 good precedents can win you a moot, you need to focus on the commercial part of your arguments at Vis.”

Menezes also said that another important challenge was to understand the bench quickly. “Understanding your bench is very important. Civil law judges do not care about cases or precedents. You have to show them some convention or statute and reason out your arguments.”

Menezes also extensively praised their team researcher Ridhi Kabra. “She played a key role in our win. I knew three arguments; Ishita knew three arguments, but Ridhi knew all the six arguments. This is a testament to her hard work.”

Menezes also thanked their team coach Manish for his guidance. “We practiced extensively and we were not tired after doing 4 rounds in a day.” Menezes also mentioned that Nalsar won every single round of the moot by a unanimous decision. “The people who judged us in the semis took us out for lunch before the finals and rooted for us during the finals.”

• Click here to read about the modest Indian performance of NLSIU and NLU Delhi at the Philip C Jessup International Law Moot.

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