INTRODUCTION

I. The CISG and The Vietnam CISG Pre-Moot

1. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (the
“CISG”) founded in 1980 is one of the most successful international treaties in the field
of international commercial trade. The CISG applies to sales contracts between parties
whose registered offices are located in the state members of the treaty. Vietnam
officially became the 84th member of the CISG on 18 December 2015.

2. The Vietnam CISG Pre-Moot (the “Pre-Moot”) is an annual competition of teams

3. Mission. The Pre-Moot is implemented as an educational program with a view to

II. Organization of the Vietnam CISG Pre-Moot

4. Organizing Committee. The Pre-Moot is jointly organized by the following

5. The Pre-Moot consists of the preparation of an outline for Claimant, an outline for
Respondent and the Oral Hearings. Teams are expected to participate in all parts of
the Pre-Moot to receive a certificate of participation.

6. Venue. The Oral Hearings will be held in-person in Hanoi, Vietnam and/or online via
Zoom.

7. Timeline.
26/12/2022 - 08/01/2023 : Registration
10/01/2023 - 08/02/2023 : Preliminary Round (Outline Submitting)
09/02/2023 - 19/02/2023 : Outline Evaluation
03/03/2023 : Elimination Round
04/03/2023 : Quarter-final Round & Semi-final Round
05/03/2023 : Final Round

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8. Language. The Pre-Moot will be conducted in English.

RULES

9. The Vietnam CISG Pre-Moot 2023 adopts the Rules of the 30th Vis Moot1 with the
exception and addition, including but not limited to, as follows:

III. Registration

10. Registration in the Pre-Moot is a one-step process consisting of the completion of the
online registration form.

11. There is no registration fee. All incurred expenses (travel, accommodation, etc.) of the
teams (if any) during the competition will be borne by the teams. The Organizing
Committee shall not support costs incurred at any stage of the competition.

12. Registrations will be accepted until 08 January 2023 (23:59 GMT+7). Registrations
after this time will be forfeited, unless otherwise approved in writing by the Organizing
Committee.

13. Registration of multiple teams from the same university is allowed.

14. Participation in either the Vis Moot Vienna or Vis Moot Hong Kong is not a requisite to
register in the Vietnam CISG Pre-Moot.

15. The Vietnam CISG Pre-Moot Committee reserves their right to refuse or cancel the
registration of any team, and such refusal or cancellation is in the absolute discretion
of the Committee deciding jointly. When exercising their discretion, the Committee will
have regard to, but are not limited to, the past conduct of teams from that institution
(for example any unjustified last-minute cancellations, or any past violations of any
rules of the competition, etc.).

IV. The Problem

16. This Pre-Moot refers to the Problem of the 30th Vis Moot2 involving a controversy
arising out of an international sale of goods subject to the United Nations Convention
on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG).

V. Communications

1
https://www.vismoot.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/30th-Vis-Moot-Rules_FINAL.pdf
2
https://www.vismoot.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/22-11-07-CASE-Final_corrected-with-
PO-2.pdf

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17. Communications between the teams and the Vietnam CISG Pre-Moot Organizing
Committee shall be conducted via email to the address:
[email protected]. Each team shall register an email and an authorized
contact person in the registration form. The teams bear the risk of non-email
communication.

VI. Teams and Participants

18. Participants are undergraduates either from law schools or higher educational
institutions with an interest in international commercial law and arbitration.

19. Composition. Participants shall register in teams consisting of 02, 03 or 04 members.

20. List of team members. The list of team members must be finalized before the deadline
of Outline Submitting. Members of the team may withdraw but shall not be added
without special permission of the Organizing Committee. Any changes in the
composition of the team must be specifically communicated to the Vietnam CISG Pre-
Moot Organizing Committee until 19 February 2023 at the latest.

VII. Outline

21. Each team must submit an outline for Claimant and an outline for Respondent to the
Pre-Moot Organizing Committee by 08 February 2023 (23:59 GMT+7). The outlines
shall be submitted via email. Teams that fail to submit their outlines by the deadline
shall not be eligible to compete in the Oral Hearings.

22. Formatting of Outlines. The outline shall be submitted in searchable PDF as a single
computer file so that the outline can be printed with a cover page. The outlines must
be no longer than twelve (12) 8½ x 11 inch or A4 typed pages, including any statement
of facts, arguments, discussion and conclusion. Cover pages, tables of contents,
indices, lists of authorities or other materials that do not consist of facts, arguments,
discussion or conclusions may be in addition. The outlines shall be in 12 sized fonts
and 1.5 line space with all margins must be at least 2.5 cm.

23. Scoring of Outlines. A jury will score the outlines on the basis of the quality of the
analysis, persuasiveness of argument, thoroughness of research, clarity of the writing
and adherence to the elements of style set out above. The jury will take into account
whether arguments are based on facts not found in the Problem or clarifications that
are not logical and necessary extensions of the given facts. When judging the outline
for the Respondent, account will be taken of whether it is responsive to the arguments
raised by the Claimant.

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24. The results from the jury shall be used for determination of teams to participate in the
Oral Hearings. Further, the teams whose outlines receive with the highest score from
the jury shall be selected for the winners of the awards for the best outline in each
category.

VIII. Oral Hearings

25. The Oral Hearings will be held in-person in Hanoi, Vietnam and/or online via Zoom,
from 03 March 2023 to 05 March 2023.

26. The 16 teams that pass the Preliminary Round (Outline Submitting) will advance to the
Elimination Round. The 08 teams with the highest scores in the Elimination Round will
be selected for the Quarter-final Round where the teams will be paired randomly. The
04 winners of the Quarter-final Round will meet in the Semi-Final Round. The 02
winners of the Semi-final Round will meet in the Final Round.

27. The time for the oral presentation of each team is, in principle, thirty (30) minutes. The
team should allocate equitably the time available to the two (02) individual advocates.
However, the arbitral tribunal may exceed the time limits stated so long as neither team
is allowed more than forty-five (45) minutes to present its argument, including the time
necessary to answer the questions of the tribunal. It will be the responsibility of the
tribunal to ensure that the teams are treated fairly.

28. The arbitrators will decide whether rebuttal arguments will be permitted. Whether or
not a rebuttal will be allowed can be expected to change from one argument to the
next.

29. Teams are not restricted to the arguments in their written outlines.

30. In the Quarter-final, Semi-final and Final Rounds, teams will draw to decide which team
is Claimant and which is Respondent.

31. The winning team of the Oral Hearings of the Vietnam CISG Pre-Moot 2023 is the
team that wins the Final Round and is the recipient of the Award for the Best Team
Orals.

32. `In each Hearing, one (01) or three (03) arbitrators may be expected to seat.

IX. Conflict of interests

33. Participants are required to disclose their team pairing as soon as they receive their
pairing schedule for the Vis Moot in Vienna and/or Hong Kong in order to avoid conflict
of interest for the team pairing for the Vietnam CISG Pre-Moot. Participants are also
required to raise conflict as soon as possible should there be any.

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X. Interpretation of the Rules

34. For interpretation of these rules, requests may be addressed to the Vietnam CISG Pre-
Moot Organizing Committee. All interpretations, as well as any waivers, consents, or
other decisions are at the discretion of the Vietnam CISG Pre-Moot Organizing
Committee in their conduct of the Pre-Moot.

AWARDS

35. The awards given in the Pre-Moot are:

Main awards

- 01 Award for the Best Team Orals (made to the winning team in the Final Round of
the Oral Hearings);
- 01 Award for the First Runner-up (made to the other team in the Final Round of the
Oral Hearings);
- 02 Awards for the Second Runner-ups (made to the 02 teams eliminated in the
Semi-final Round).

Additional awards

- Award for the Best Individual Oralist. This award will be given to the individual
advocate with the highest score in all rounds of Oral Hearings;
- Award for the Best Outline for Claimant;
- Award for the Best Outline for Respondent;
- Award for the Favorite Team. This award is given to the team with the most active
interactions (the most reactions and comments from the public in the voting post) on
the official fanpage of Vietnam CISG Pre-Moot3.

CONTACT

36. If there is any further question about the competition, please contact the Organizing
Committee as mentioned below:

Facebook group:
http://bit.ly/ketnoithisinhVNCISGPreMoot

Email address:
[email protected]

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https://www.facebook.com/VN.CISGPremoot

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 Hotline:
Ms. Phan Thị Trúc Linh - 097 148 0085
Ms. Vương Khánh Huyền - 086 829 1002