24 November 2014

The Twelfth CIETAC Cup International Commercial Arbitration Moot (CIETAC Cup) was held by the China International Economic and Trade Commission (CIETAC) on 17-21 November, 2014. This year, over 200 students coming from 33 different universities in China participated in the CIETAC Cup. As the host, CIETAC invited more than 50 international and domestic well-known lawyers and arbitrators to act as the judges for the moot. After the competition, CIETAC hosted a grand Awarding Ceremony and issued certificates and trophies to the Best Oralists, the Outstanding Contributors, the Top Eight Teams, the Runner-up Team and the Champion.

The CIETAC Cup was held in 4 consecutive days, with altogether 73 hearings. The participants demonstrated their excellent command of English, professional skills and outstanding team spirit during the hearings. Following rounds of fierce competition, the team from Peking University School of Transnational Law won the Championship and the team from Shantou University was the Runner-up team. CIETAC will sponsor the Champion and the Runner-up team to compete in the Willem C. Vis Moot Competition in Vienna and Hong Kong respectively next year. Willem C. Vis Moot Competition is a widely influential competition in international commercial arbitration as well as legal education. CIETAC was the first institution to introduce, organize, and sponsor this competition in China. Since the first CIETAC Cup that was held in 2000 to this year, CIETAC Cup attracted an accumulative of more than 1400 participants from over 80 universities. CIETAC Cup has gradually gained greater popularity and influence among universities and law schools, and has become one of the most important moot competitions for law students in China. It has played an important role in nurturing legal talents with the knowledge and the desire to take part in international commercial dispute resolution.

The remarkable development of the Chinese economy lays a solid foundation for the cultivation of Chinese legal talents and provides a big market for advanced legal expertise. If the Willem C. Vis Moot was a delicate flower at first, but having been nurtured by the participants for more than 20 years, it has grown into a beautiful garden. Likewise, the CIETAC Cup has become an important platform jointly built by CIETAC and all the supporting friends from the legal community to strengthen the law students’ knowledge and understanding of the arbitration system. It has also set up a bridge between domestic and international arbitration, and encouraged Chinese legal talents to take part in international commercial arbitration.