The only team from Izmir

Izmir University of Economics (IUE) Faculty of Law students Arda Ataoğuz, Göktuğ Şirin and Ömer Ateş represented our country in Willem C. Vis Moot, the most prestigious international commercial arbitration moot competition. Young people from IUE became the only team from universities in Izmir to participate in the competition held in Vienna, the capital of Austria, where 378 universities from 89 countries participated. Competing with students from the world's most respected law faculties, the young law students drew attention with their knowledge and successful performances in oral defense, even though they lost the first place to the University of Vienna. Stating that many teams from thousands of universities around the world applied to the competition, Prof. Dr. Sevilay Uzunallı, Dean of IUE Faculty of Law, said, “Even passing the pre-selection and qualifying for Vienna is a great achievement. We would like to thank our students who represented us in the competition in the best way and made us proud.”

Under the guidance of Asst. Prof. Dr. Ebru Akduman and with the assistance of research assistants Barış Karahan and Afra Gürlüler, IUE Faculty of Law Team competed in the 30^th edition of the Willem C. Vis Moot competition this year.

IUE students, who participated in mutual arbitration hearings against students from prestigious law faculties such as London Bloomsbury University, Paris Dauphine University, American University, Washington DC and Edinburgh University, became the only team from Izmir to participate in the competition. Returning to Izmir from Vienna, the team also visited Rector Prof. Dr. Murat Aşkar and shared their experiences with him.

WE ENCOURAGE OUR STUDENTS

Dean of IUE Faculty of Law, Prof. Dr. Sevilay Uzunallı emphasized that it was very important for students to gain professional experience in international cases, and stated that they attach great importance to the competition at this point. Our students presented his claims and defenses before arbitration committees composed of Dr. Pascal Hachem, Atty. Marcus Altenkirch, Atty. Marc Labgold and Atty. Genevieve Porier, who are partners of distinguished international law firms. It has been a very valuable experience in terms of professional development for our students. At the end of the hearings, we also visited Ozan Ceyhun, Ambassador to Vienna, and informed him about the competition. As the faculty, we always support our students to participate in national and international competitions. We will continue to increase such things. We also aim to organize a pre-moot competition in Izmir and to cooperate with large law firms and companies in the coming period.”