NUS Law clinches the 2021 Frankfurt Investment Arbitration Moot Championship!

(L to R): Nicholas Chia ’21, Yeoh Su-Jane ’22, Shayna Robinson ’22, Ng Wei Qi ’21

Congratulations to Nicholas Chia ’21, Ng Wei Qi ’21, Shayna Robinson ’22, and Yeoh Su-Jane ’22 for emerging as Champions of the 2021 Frankfurt Investment Arbitration Moot.

The moot was organised by the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory and Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP. For the first time, the moot was held virtually over two weeks and saw 43 teams from 21 countries participating. The finals were presided over by Pierre Tercier, Sir Michael Wood, and Michael E. Schneider.

The moot is unique in applying the cutting-edge of international law to historical events. This year’s problem was set in the 1840s and focused on the Vieille Montagne mine in Neutral Moresnet, a condominium over which Prussia, the Netherlands, and later, Belgium, were jointly sovereign. The investors’ claim against the three States under a fictional Vienna Investment Treaty raised pertinent issues such as the protection of investments in disputed territories, State succession, foreign control of domestic companies, and the standing of such companies before arbitral tribunals.

The team would like to thank their coaches Violet Huang ’20, Tan Fong Han ’20, Joan Lim-Casanova ’06, and Ian Choo ’18 for their unwavering support and guidance throughout this journey.

For their time and feedback in numerous practice rounds and consultations, the team is deeply grateful to Professor Simon Chesterman, Associate Professor Eleanor Wong ’85, Emeritus Professor M Sornarajah, Professor Antony Anghie, Associate Professor N Jansen Calamita, Visiting Professor Bernard Hanotiau, Visiting Professor Albert Jan van den Berg, Adjunct Associate Professor Matthew Secomb, Adjunct Assistant Professor Aditya Singh, Bay Jia Wei ’22, Chong Fu Shan ’22, Clara Low ’22, Lee Kay Han ’22, Victor Leong ’16, Joshua Hiew ’17, Emmanuel Aw ’19, Low Jia Rong ’19, Yohanes Ng ’21, Gwendolyn Oh ’21, David Isidore Tan ’16, Natalee Ho ’20, Kevin Elbert Toa ’15, Victor Yao ’17, Uma Sharma ’19, Nicholas Lingard, Kate Apostolova, Samantha Tan ’11, Dharshini Prasad ’12, Dr Romesh Weeramantry, Paul Tan ’05, Emily Choo ’10, and Rachel Tan ’17.

The team especially thanks Associate Professor Eleanor Wong ’85 for allowing them the opportunity to represent NUS in this moot.