The Beginning: Why We're Doing This

Every team has a starting point. Ours is a little more interesting than most. Raghav, Ashmit, and Misthi were the ones who started this. Through the university's moot court allocation process, they were assigned to represent UPES at the Vis Moot 2027. A call went out for additional members. Pratham and Stuti put their names forward. Five people who had never all been in the same room together suddenly had a shared goal, a shared problem, and a deadline in Vienna.

What made it feel less like a random assembly and more like something that was supposed to happen was the history that already existed. Pratham and Stuti had been in the trenches together. Hong Kong, 2025 — the 23rd Red Cross International Humanitarian Law Moot Court Competition, quarter-finals, Best Prosecution Memorial. Before that, the Henry Dunant Memorial Moot Court Competition Indian National Rounds, which they won. After those two competitions, their paths briefly split. Pratham went to the Jessup. Stuti turned to research. But the same thought had been forming independently in both of them: they wanted to do one more moot together, and they wanted it to count. When the Vis call came, saying yes took about five seconds.

Getting to know Raghav, Ashmit, and Misthi made the whole thing feel even more right. They were serious, they were open, and they cared about doing this properly. That became clear very quickly.

For anyone who does not know what the Vis is: it is the largest moot court competition in the world. Over 400 universities, more than 80 countries, oral rounds in Vienna every spring in front of some of the most experienced international arbitration practitioners alive. The problem is released in October and is built around the CISG and international arbitration procedure. It is hard. It is demanding. And it is exactly where we want to be. None of us have done anything quite like this before. International commercial arbitration is new territory for most of us, and we are not pretending otherwise. The teams we will face in Vienna have been doing this for years. The arbitrators have seen everything. There is no shortcut through the preparation and no hiding in the oral rounds. We know that going in, and honestly, that is part of why we said yes.

This blog exists to document the journey honestly. The preparation, the long research sessions, the practice rounds, the pre-moots, and eventually Vienna. The days when things click and the days when they do not. We want the people following this team to see the work, not just the result.

Five students from Dehradun. Going to Vienna. This is where it starts. — The UPES Vis Moot 2027 Team