Campbell Law advocates advance to semi-finals in Vis Pre-Moot Competition

Campbell Law School advocates advanced to the semi-finals in the John B. “Jack” Tieder Jr. Vis Pre-Moot Competition organized by Watt, Tieder, Hoffar and Fitzgerald LLP in conjunction with the George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School Moot Court Board (MCB).

The competition is part of the 33rd Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot.

The in-person competition, which included networking receptions and panel discussions on Third-Party Funding and Force Majeure, was held on Jan. 30-31, 2026, at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School in Arlington, Virginia.

Campbell Law’s team, which was coached by Campbell Law Professor Raluca Papadima and Nicholas Wilkins ‘26, was composed of: Mariana Bijelac ‘27, Suzy Brito Lagunas ‘26, Gavin Dacier ‘26, Edmund Gunther ‘26, Abigail Sholes ‘27 and James Whitaker ‘26.

“After the general rounds going up against Georgetown University and Harvard University, we advanced to the semi-finals,” Papadima explained. “The four teams that advanced to the semi-finals were Campbell, Harvard, American University and George Mason University. We were paired with Harvard in the semi-final. Harvard prevailed and then lost to American University in the final.”

The Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot is a competition for law students to foster the study and practice of international commercial sales law and arbitration. Students from all countries are eligible (students from 80 countries participated in the 32nd Vis Moot). The Moot involves a dispute arising out of a contract of sale between two countries that are party to the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. The contract provides that any dispute that might arise is to be settled by arbitration in a country that has enacted the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration and is a party to the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards. The arbitral rules to be applied rotate yearly among the arbitration rules of co-sponsoring institutions of the Moot. For the 33rd edition of the competition, the arbitration rules of the Singapore International Arbitration Center are applicable.

There are two crucial phases in the Vis Moot: the writing of memoranda for claimant and respondent and the presentation of arguments in oral hearings held before arbitration practitioners and academics.

The purpose of the Vis Moot is to provide practical training of students for resolving international business disputes and expose students to comparative law and research. The business community’s marked preference for resolving international commercial disputes by arbitration is the reason this method of dispute resolution was selected as the clinical tool to train law students.

In the pairings of teams for the general round, every effort is made to have civil law schools argue against common law schools — so each may learn from approaches taken by persons trained in another legal culture. Similarly, the teams of arbitrators judging each round are from both common law and civil law backgrounds.