BCCI hosted the 5th edition of the Sofia VIS Pre-Moot

 

At the end of last week, the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry hosted the 5^th edition of the Sofia VIS Pre-Moot - a competition for students with focus on international commercial arbitration and international sale of goods. Sofia Pre-Moot is a simulated arbitration process related to the implementation of the UN Convention on the International Sale of Goods (CISG). It is conducted in English and aims to allow the participating universities to prepare their teams for the 26^th Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot in Vienna - the world's largest moot court competition.

The sponsors of the event are the Bulgarian Association of Independent Wine Growers, the Bulgarian law firm Dimitrov, Petrov & Co and the Bulgarian office of the Austrian law firm Schoenherr.

The competition was opened with a conference dedicated to current problems of the international commercial arbitration. At the conference, speakers from Bulgaria and Switzerland - lawyers and arbitrators made a series of presentations dedicated to  international commercial arbitration and international commercial law. The presentations addressed the fundamental issues related to contract adaptation (Mr. Dimitar Stoimenov); the protection of personal data in arbitration proceedings (Dr. Martin Zahariev), a review of the practice of the ICC in contract adaptation (Ms. Elina Zlatanska) and a review of recent case-law on the admissibility of illegally obtained evidence in international commercial arbitration (Thierry Augsburger). The conference was moderated by Mr. Oleg Temnikov.

The conference was opened by the President of the Court of Arbitration at the BCCI - Mr. Blagovest Punev, who congratulated the participants and expressed the constant and unwavering support of the BCCI for the event and the development of the legal education.

Sofia VIS Pre Moot continued on Saturday, 9^th and Sunday, 10^th March, when a total of 42 rounds were held, with the participation of more than 30 arbitrators from the country and abroad. We are proud to share that this year we had 10 participating teams from Germany, France, Italy, Macedonia, Slovakia and Turkey and, of course, the three Bulgarian universities - Sofia University, University of National and World Economy, and Veliko Tarnovo University.

After two days of hard work, the teams and the arbitrators expressed their appreciation for the event, emphasizing the good organization, the excellent conditions at the BCCI and the high level of the rounds. The Pre-Moot was officially closed by the President of BCCI Mr. Tsvetan Simeonov.

BCCI and the Association for International Moot Court Competitions intend to continue this tradition in 2020.