The team of the Faculty of Law of the University of Bucharest has once again qualified in the eliminatory rounds of the Willem Vis 2024 competition held in Hong Kong. At the oral rounds in Hong Kong, the team received an honorary mention, finishing on the 9th place (ex aequo) out of the 144 participating teams, and an honorary mention (4th place ex aequo) for the best individual barrister, offered to Ilinca Leșovschi.
This results represents the natural continuation to the series of performances obtained by the team of the Faculty of Law of the University of Bucharest along the years at the Willem Vis competition in Hong Kong, which includes the fact that the team won 1st place in the world at written memoirs and managed to enter the semifinals three times so far (3rd place at worldwide level).
The simulated processes competition in the field of international commercial arbitration Willem Vis, which takes place annually in Hong Kong and Vienna, is the largest and most prestigious international private law competition in the world, often times being referred to as the international law Olympics. Over 400 universities in the world participate to the Willem Vis competition each year, representing all the continents and the entire variety of law systems and juridical traditions worldwide.
The 21st edition in Hong Kong was organized between March 11th – 17th 2024, and the 31st Vienna edition will be held between March 23rd – 28th 2024.
The team of the UB Faculty of Law that entered the Willem Vis competition (Hong Kong and Vienna editions) comprises 6 students, who are jointly preparing all the stages of the two editions of the competition: Călin-Paul Chițu (3rd year and Collège Juridique), Daniel Dijmărescu (4th year), Arina Maria Dumitru (3rd year), Ilinca Leșovschi (3rd year and Collège Juridique), Maria Andreea Pacioga (3rd year) and Andreea-Nicola Stoiculescu (3rd year).
At the oral phase in Hong Kong, the team was represented by Ilinca Leșovschi and Maria Andreea Pacioga. The team qualified for the eliminatory rounds (32 out of 144 teams) and got to the eliminatory round comprising 16 teams, thus obtaining the 9th place in the Eric Bergsten category (the best team at the oral phase), the most prestigious category of the competition.
At the same time, student Ilinca Leșovschi also received an honorary mention (4th place ex aequo) for the best individual barrister out of a total of 500 students who entered the competition as barristers.
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During the oral phase of the Hong Kong competition (general and eliminatory rounds), the UB Faculty of Law team met the following teams: Maharashtra University (India), London School of Economics (UK) and Xiamen University (China).
Based on the results obtained in the general rounds, the team of the University of Bucharest qualified in the eliminatory rounds (first 32 teams from the 144 that participated) and pleaded against the following teams during the eliminatory rounds: Munchen University (Germany, eliminatory round 32) and Charles University (Czech Republic, eliminatory round 16). The oral phase of the competition was won by National Law University Jodhpur (India), which surpassed Charles University in the finale of the competition.
The Romanian team was joined in Hong Kong by lecturer and lawyer Raluca Papadima, PhD, teaching staff at the University of Bucharest and Collège Juridique d’Etudes Européennes, Alexandru Köber, active lawyer for the Filip & Company law office, and David Oprea, lawyer and partner of Markó & Udrea law office.
The team also received pedagogical support in the preparation stage from assistant Mihaela Gherghe, PhD, teaching staff of the University of Bucharest and lawyer for the Rizoiu & Poenaru law office, lawyer Cristina Badea, from the Guia Naghi & Partners law office and Maria Avram, lawyer for the Ţuca Zbârcea & Asociaţii law office, as well as many other ex-participants of the competition: Răzvan Banța, Cătălina Bîzîc, Irina Crivăț, Cezara Diaconescu, George Domocoș, Andrei Greceanu, Mihnea Jére, Claudia Mihalcea, Raluca Rusu, Alina Stan and Antonio Timnea.
The team of the UB Faculty of Law received financial support from the University of Bucharest, as well as sponsorships granted via the Vindobona Association by law offices CMS Cameron McKenna, Doru Trăilă & Asociații (TAMC), Filip & Company, Guia Naghi & Partners, Mihalcea & Asociații, Nestor Nestor Diculescu Kingston Petersen, CI Raluca Papadima, CI Horia Rădulescu, Reff & Asociații (Deloitte), Schoenherr, Ţuca Zbârcea & Asociaţii and Stoica & Asociații. In addition, they also sponsored, through the Vindobona Association, the participation of many physical persons at the competition, including professor Camelia Toader and a number of other ex-contestants.
The Vindobona Association is one of the approximately 30 NGO’s selected to participate to the Swimathon 2024 fundraising campaign, and addresses warm thanks to the friends of the Faculty of Law of the University of Bucharest for their support.
More details on the participation of the Vindobona Association at Swimathon are available here.
