The Willem C Vis International Arbitration Moot - held in Vienna - featured 251 teams from around the world, including UTS, UNSW, Deakin and Grif­fith universities.

Leading Australia's presence at the prestigious event was Nicholas Rudd - son of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd - and ACICA president Doug Jones.

"It gave ACICA and Australia the chance to show our wares in the international arbitration space," Jones told Lawyers Weekly.

"Australia really managed to make its mark and it provided us with an opportunity to promote Australia as a place for international arbitration, and I don't think we let that opportunity go past."

Kings College London took out the title, whose final showdown with Ottawa University was ar­bitrated by Jones.

In a rare achievement, the UNSW team - com­prising Narges Khabbaz, Trina Ng, Ann Kayis and Michelle Wen - was awarded the Peter Sanders

Award for Best Memorandum (Claimant) and the Werner Melis Award for Best Memorandum (Re­spondent), while Griffith University made it to the final 16 teams.

The Griffith team was aided in its success by Rudd - now a paralegal at Clayton Utz - who was part of the team who made it to the semi-finals in last year's competition.

"The quality of moot was pretty exceptional, particularly in the final rounds," said Rudd.

"I was lucky enough to watch a few of the Aus­tralian teams participate and they did really well."

Both Jones and Rudd expressed their delight with the success of the event in which Australia took such a leading role.

"You have all the leading academics and arbi­trators from around the world so ... if you love ar­bitration, it's a real arbitration love-fest," said Rudd.

"Everyone who knows something [about ar­bitration] goes to this event, and with all the stu­dents there as well it is a truly international ex­perience. It was really fun."