In the December 2020 issue of this journal, the Editors asked whether the “new normal” surrounding COVID-19 can make international arbitration more international. An initiative called “Africa in the Moot” is answering this question whilst making progress in bridging the geographic boundaries which restrict the full potential of international arbitration. This article will introduce “Africa in the Moot” (1), and outline its goals and activities (2), whilst demonstrating how Australia has already been involved in this initiative and can sustain contribution to further internationalisation (3).

(1) What is Africa in the Moot?

Africa in the Moot is a young initiative that was founded in late 2020 by four coaches of African teams for the Annual Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot Court (or in short, the Vis Moot). The Vis Moo – together with its sister competition, the Vis Moot East – is the largest educational experience of its type worldwide. The popularity of the competition is booming and saw the participation of almost 400 teams from all over the world this year. But were they really from all over the world?

Traditionally, universities from Sub-Saharan Africa have been underrepresented in the Vis Moot. In fact, only 5 out of the almost 400 teams this year came from Sub-Saharan Africa. To put this into perspective: there are at least 54 countries and many more universities on the African continent. As a result of the on-going global pandemic and its respective traveling restrictions, the two Vis Moot competitions were held virtually by video conference instead of traditional in-person pleadings in Hong Kong and Vienna. No one had to travel anywhere. No visas were required. No flights and no hotel-associated costs. The only financial burden for each team was the participation fee. This was Africa’s chance.

Through a series of lucky connections on LinkedIn, Michael, one of the authors of this article, became the coach of Team University Eduardo Mondlane in Maputo. They were the first ever Vis Moot team from Mozambique and from any Portuguese-speaking African country. All coaching activity took place virtually through email exchange and video conferencing. The team members and coach have not met in person to this day, with Michael working as an attorney in Munich, Germany, and the team consisting of five dedicated students in Maputo: Deyse, Thaís, Ângela, Verman, and Hendro. Again, through another series of lucky connections on LinkedIn, Michael met Stephen Fleischer, a graduate of Loyola University Chicago School of Law. Stephen now lives in Nairobi, Kenya, and has been the coach of the Vis Moot Team from Strathmore University in Nairobi for the past three years. In addition, Stephen has close ties to the new Vis Moot Team from the University of Nairobi. Michael further met Tijmen Klein Bronsvoort and Mick Gerrits – two attorneys from the Netherlands who, since 2019, have been supporting efforts to help the University of Lagos from Nigeria to participate in the Vis Moot

Tijmen, Stephen, Mick, and Michael readily joined forces to facilitate the participation of more African teams in future Vis Moot competitions. Floor Wijffels and Henriëtte Kasteel – two Dutch attorneys remotely coaching the team of University of Pretoria in South Africa – quickly joined the initiative. Tijmen and Michael then presented the initiative during a video conference ceremony in which the finalist teams in Hong Kong were announced. Following that presentation and several posts on LinkedIn, many international arbitration enthusiasts heeded the call and offered their support for Africa in the Moot.

(2) What Does Africa in the Moot Do?

Africa in the Moot has several goals. Primarily, it aims at enabling more African students to demonstrate their talent and to participate in international exchange. Further, the initiative seeks to raise awareness of arbitration and the law governing contracts for the international sale of goods. In doing so, Africa in the Moot’s goal is to help with the education of future thought leaders in international commerce.

Africa in the Moot currently supports five Vis Moot Teams from Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and Mozambique in their preparation for and participation in the Vis Moot. There are already concrete plans to expand this list to universities in Lesotho, Tanzania, and Rwanda next year as well as some other promising leads.

The support given by Africa in the Moot is always tailor-made and responds to each individual university’s needs. One area of support is coaching. Africa in the Moot works together with a large network of coaches from different legal backgrounds and at different stages in their careers. All coaches pledge to dedicate their time to support African teams – sometimes remotely, sometimes on the ground. By bringing in coaches from outside each African jurisdiction and cooperation with coaches from the jurisdiction itself, the coaching also becomes an experience of cultural and legal exchange for everyone involved.

For the written phase, Africa in the Moot strives to provide access to legal databases and to hardcopy literature for the teams. In addition, the coaches or external speakers engaged by Africa in the Moot show the students how to draft memoranda from the perspective of an attorney.

Success in the oral phase of the Vis Moot is dependent upon practice. To provide as much practice as possible to the teams, Africa in the Moot arranges for practice pleadings between individual teams and with one or several outside arbitrators. The initiative also helps teams to participate in so-called ‘Pre-Moots’, where several universities meet each other for friendly practice. Finally, Africa in the Moot encourages African arbitration practitioners and academics to arbitrate in the Vis Moot.

Participating in an in-person event in Hong Kong or Vienna can be expensive for an African team. During the pandemic, whilst everything is virtual, there is still a participation fee that must be settled. Where necessary, Africa in the Moot connects teams with dedicated domestic or international sponsors.

(3) Australia’s Past, Present, and Future Involvement

Past and Present Involvement

It is evident that the Vis Moot was the platform which ultimately facilitated the first collaboration between Africa in the Moot and Australia. Through the newfounded connections fostered by Africa in the Moot, Team Maputo and an Australian team representing Deakin University in Melbourne held a practice pleading on 25 March 2021 in preparation for the Vienna competition.

During this practice pleading, two teams from completely different countries and legal systems – Mozambique is a civil law system, influenced to some degree by Portuguese law – were able to practice their arguments together and demonstrate the differences in their approaches. Thereby, both teams were fostering the international character of the Vis Moot and making the geographical gap a little smaller. Rebecca Tisdale, coach of Team Deakin, and Michael Wietzorek, coach of Team Maputo, were able to gain invaluable insights from arbitrating this pleading through witnessing the different styles and techniques used between Australian and Mozambican teams. These insights will allow the coaches to expand their own techniques and foster new ideas into their future students. Through this experience, the horizon of internationality for both Australia and Mozambique was virtually shared and enhanced, and new friendships were formed between team members.

This was the first time ever that Deakin University, one of the five universities that has participated in every Vis Moot since the first edition in 1993, had the opportunity to practice with an African Vis Moot team. This milestone was achieved solely through Africa in the Moot, which only exists because of the virtual reality created by the hardships of COVID-19.

Future Involvement

Whilst this practice pleading marked the first collaboration between a team supported by Africa in the Moot and a team from Australia, it will definitely not be the last. Indeed, the pleading has set a precedent for future African and Deakin University Vis Moot teams (and potentially other Australian teams) to continue collaboration and practice together. In fact, this friendship formed during COVID-19 goes beyond even the four walls of Vis Moot. This is seen by Africa in the Moot’s efforts to support African teams’ participation in Deakin University’s very own “Alfred Deakin International Commercial Arbitration Moot”. This Moot competition is going to expand its international reach this year by offering participation from a wider range of countries due to the pandemic-induced virtual reality of competing. Africa in the Moot currently have concrete plans to support at least two African teams, from Strathmore University in Nairobi, Kenya, and from the National University of Lesotho with their application to participate in the Deakin Moot. This will already present a significant growth in the collaboration between various African countries and Australia since the original Vis Moot practice pleading.

Another plan derived from this friendship is that Chloe, one of the authors of this article and a recent Vis Moot participant for Deakin University, will join Michael as a coach and offer support to a team from an African country in the next round of the Vis Moot. With these plans already looming, and growth occurring in every direction, who knows what the future has in store for Australia’s collaboration with African countries?

Originally published in the ACICA Review June 2021.