2nd regional Podgorica Pre-Moot and International conference held

At the Faculty of Law of the University of Montenegro, the Second Regional Podgorica Pre-Moot was held, with this years program consisting of three days of training, one day of conference, and two days of competition, involving 9 teams preparing for the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot world competition.

This is a competition that annually gathers over four hundred teams from around the world and takes place in Vienna, with numerous preparatory meetings organized in various cities around the world, including Rome, Munich, Belgrade, Istanbul, Prague, and many others, and this year, for the second time, in Podgorica.

The Second Podgorica Pre-Moot meeting brought together teams from the law faculties of the University of Sarajevo, International University of Sarajevo, University of Mostar, University of Zenica, University of Banja Luka, University of Tuzla, University of Pristina, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, as well as the University of Montenegro. The top-ranked team of the Second Podgorica Pre-Moot was the team from Pristina, from the "Hasan Prishtina" University, to whom we congratulate on their excellent placement, as well as to all teams that participated and worked diligently on their arguments. Besides the teams from the region, professors, and their mentors, the Second Podgorica Pre-Moot meeting also gathered a large number of local lawyers and legal practitioners who served as arbitrators in a three-member arbitration panel, examining the presented arguments and evaluating the teams. The entire event program was conducted in English as the official language of the competition.

The Second Podgorica Pre-Moot meeting was preceded by an International Conference titled "International Contracts and Dispute Resolution in a New Era: Navigating the Good, Bad, and Unknown of Technology and Artificial Intelligence," featuring speakers including professors and lawyers from Germany, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. The program was opened by a representative of the CLDP, Shamiram Lazar, Dean of the Faculty of Law Prof. Dr. Aneta Spaić, and the Ambassador of the United States to Montenegro, Judy Rising Reinke.

The six-day program also included three days of training and education in the field of international commercial arbitration, during which students had the opportunity to learn about procedural and substantive issues of international commercial arbitration from world and local experts in these areas.

This year, the Faculty of Law organized the Second Podgorica Pre-Moot in collaboration with the CLDP organization (Commercial Law Department Program of the U.S. Department of Commerce) and the German Society for International Cooperation GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), with support from sponsors of the Vis Moot Montenegro Team, law firms: CMS, JPM Partners, Harrisons, Jovović, Mugoša, and Vuković, Karanović and Partners, Moravčević, Vojinović in cooperation with Schoenherr; and from Montenegrin institutions, the event was financially supported by: Erste Bank AD Podgorica, Investment Development Fund, Bar Association, Notary Chamber of Montenegro, and the Chamber of Public Enforcement Officers of Montenegro.