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Awards in the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot

frame|Vis Moot Four Awards are annually given in Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot: The Pieter Sanders Award, the Werner Melis Award, the Martin Domke Award and the Frédéric Eisemann Award, the latter being awarded to the best prevailing team in the oral rounds (the "Winner of the Moot").

Pieter Sanders Award for the Best Memorandum for Claimant
The Pieter Sanders Award is given for the Best Memorandum on behalf of the Claimant. During the first three Moots, the Pieter Sanders Award was given for the Best Written Memoranda in support of the positions of Claimant and Respondent. (Subsequently, the Werner Melis Award was introduced as a separate award for the memorandum in support of the Respondent.)

The Award has been named after Professor Pieter Sanders (*1913), who is widely regarded as the "father" of modern international commercial arbitration. He was one of the principal drafters of both the 1958 United Nations Convention on Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Award (the "New York Convention") and the 1976 UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules. Professor Sanders was also founder of the Law Faculty of Erasmus University Rotterdam (where he taught up to his retirement in 1981) and co-founder of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA) and the Netherlands Arbitration Institute.

In the Second Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot, held in Vienna in 1995, he served as one of the three arbitrators in the Finals.

Werner Melis Award for the Best Memorandum for Respondent
The Werner Melis Award is given for the Best Written Memorandum for Respondent. Unlike the three other awards in the Competition, this award did not exist during the first three Moots (1994-1996), but was only introduced in 1997. (During the first three Moots, the Pieter Sanders Award was given for the Best Written Memoranda in support of the positions of Claimant and Respondent.)

The Award has been named after DDr. Werner Melis (* 1935), President of the International Arbitral Centre of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (Vienna), Honorary Vice-President of International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA) and a long-time supporter of the Vis Arbitration Moot.

The award is traditionally presented by Dr. Melis himself during the awards banquet concluding each Vienna Arbitration Moot.

Martin Domke Award for the Best Individual Oralist during the General Rounds
The Martin Domke Award is awarded to the Best Individual Oralist during the general rounds. This award for the general rounds of the Competition (i.e. the four oral hearings of each team on Saturday through Tuesday) will be won by the individual advocate with the highest average score during these rounds. To be eligible for this award a participant must have argued at least once for the Claimant and once for the Respondent.

The Award has been named after Martin Domke (1892-1980), Adjunct Professor of Law at New York University and a well-known scholar of international arbitration. Professor Domke was Vice President of the American Arbitration Association for 25 years and served as editor in chief of the Arbitration Journal. He also was the author of "Commercial Arbitration," published in 1965, and "The Law and Practice of Commercial Arbitration," published in 1968.

Frédéric Eisemann Award for the Best Team Orals (Winner of the Moot)
The winner of the oral rounds at Vienna is awarded the Frédéric Eisemann Award for the best prevailing team in the oral rounds. It is the most prestigious award in the Competition (designating the "Winner of the Moot").

The Award has been named after Frédéric Eisemann (1908- ), the highly respected former Secretary General of the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (1947-1973).

Award-Winning Teams (1994-2010)
In the 17 years the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot has been conducted, a total of 70 awards have been given:
 * 19 Pieter Sanders Awards (in 2004 and 2006 there was a tie, so two awards were given in those years),
 * 14 Werner Melis Awards (since this award did not exist until the 4th Moot in 1997),
 * 20 Martin Domke Awards (three ties, in 2002, 2003 and 2005) and
 * 17 Frederic Eisemann Awards.

Out of the approximately 270 universities that have sent teams to the Vis Moot in the past, only 36 have ever received an award (or more).

The List of Award-Winning Teams shown in the table below only covers the actual awards, not second and third places or honorable mentions. It counts all awards given since the inaugural Vis Moot held in 1994 up to the 17th Vis Moot (2010).

The Rank is based on the overall number of awards collected by the teams representing each university over the years. It not only includes the Sanders Awards, the Melis Awards and the Eisemann Awards, but also the Domke Awards, although the latter award is technically given to an individual member of the team, not the team as a whole. Whenever two (or more) teams have collected the same number of awards, a team which has received an Eisemann Award is ranked higher than the teams which have not (since the Eisemann Award designates the Winner of the Moot). Furthermore, teams which have received a team award (Sanders and Melis Awards) are ranked higher than those teams which have not (i.e. where a team member has received a Domke Award).