The Willem C. Vis Moot (Vis Moot) Program in Sri Lanka embarked on a new journey three years after its inception by introducing The Moot Court Bench. This is an initiative to create a platform in Sri Lanka to teach prospective law students all over the country the fundamentals of arbitration and the path to becoming a great advocate by passing onto the intricacies of written and oral advocacy. The Moot Court Bench also institutionalizes the process of selecting the teams to represent Sri Lanka in the Vis Moot Competition.

This year in April and May through a competitive process, 57 students from 8 different universities were selected to be a part of the 2020-21 Vis Moot program. Over 90 applicants applied to be part of this year’s program.

On June 6, 2020, the program was officially launched virtually due to COVID-19. Sulaiman Rameez, a Vis alum and the head of the Moot Court Bench, led the program with an introduction to the Vis Moot and the various coaches. Zmarak Khan from CLDP welcomed the new coaches and students to the program and shared CLDP’s goals and expectations for the Sri Lanka Vis Moot program. The Vis Moot coaches then shared with the teams the Phase I curriculum, which lasts from June to September. The coaches covered various procedural and substantive legal issues related to the Vis Moot and international arbitration. The coaches explained that teams will be expected to meet once a week amongst themselves and once a week with their respective coaches. The teams will compete in September in the Sri Lanka National Vis Moot competition, through which CLDP will select 2 teams, who will complete in the actual Vis Moot in March 2021.