Austria

Georgia Law students compete in Vis arbitration moot in Vienna, Austria

A team of students recently represented the University of Georgia School of Law at the 31st annual Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot in Vienna, Austria. 

The 2023-2024 team comprised 2Ls Jacob (“Jake”) Wood, Tiffany Torchia, Olha (“Olia”) Kaliuzhna, and Patrick Smith. Among those who supported their efforts were numerous coaches: 3Ls Hanna Esserman and Yekaterina (“Kat”) Ko, with support from 3Ls Sandon Fernandes and Benjamin (“Ben”) Price, and Georgia Law Dean Peter B. “Bo” Rutledge. They worked together beginning in October, writing two briefs and preparing for oral advocacy. In early February, the team also participated in the Fordham School of Law Vis Pre-Moot in New York. 

This year, 373 teams from 89 jurisdictions around the world competed in Austria. Alongside more than 2,500 students, the Georgia Law team competed for several days. 

Reflecting on the last six months of Vis, Patrick shared,

“As a member of the Vis Moot team, I worked with my teammates to research, brief, and argue an international commercial arbitration case that reflected a real life issue. At the Vis competition in Vienna, we met and competed against teams from around the world who had all worked on the same case, which was such a unique experience. We were lucky to have the guidance, expertise, and support of Dean Rutledge. Overall, Vis exposed me to the global nature of commercial arbitration and gave me an increased appreciation of international law.“

To learn more about the Vis Moot team at Georgia Law, visit our website here.

Georgia Law students compete in Vis arbitration moot in Vienna, Austria

Top row, Benjamin Price; front row, l to r, Emily Crowell, Hanna Esserman, Yekaterina Ko, Sandon Fernandes, Savannah Grant

A team of students recently represented the University of Georgia School of Law at the annual Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot in Vienna, Austria. 

This year’s team comprised 2Ls Hanna Esserman, Sandon Fernandes, Benjamin Price, and Yekaterina Ko. Among those who supported their efforts were numerous coaches: 3Ls Emily Crowell and Savannah Grant, with support from 3Ls Collin Douglas and Ligon Fant, and Georgia Law Dean Peter B. “Bo” Rutledge.  

Fernandes reflected on his Vis experience, which included not only the team’s competition in Vienna but also its third-place finish in the Florida Bar International Law Section Richard DeWitt Memorial Vis Pre-Moot in Miami this past February: 

“The Vis Moot Court competition provides students with the opportunity to collaborate on a challenging international commercial dispute as if it were a real case. Competing against 378 teams from around the world has given me the ability to analyze complex legal issues from a global perspective.”

Georgia Law Professor Walter Hellerstein presents on valued added tax law issues

Walter Hellerstein, Distinguished Research Professor & Shackelford Distinguished Professor in Taxation Law Emeritus here at the University of Georgia School of Law, recently participated in numerous events related to tax:

He was a member of a panel on “Taxable Persons and Related Issues in VAT Law,” at a conference entitled “Court of Justice of the European Union: Recent VAT Case Law,” sponsored by Austria’s Vienna University of Economics and Business.

And at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Global Workshop on Implementing a Comprehensive Valued Added Tax/Goods and Services Tax Digital Strategy, Hellerstein spoke about OECD International VAT/GST Guidelines and presented a talk entitled “The Existing Legal Instruments for the International Exchange of Information.”

Georgia Law Professor Walter Hellerstein takes part in EU Court of Justice tax law conference in Vienna

Walter Hellerstein, Distinguished Research Professor & Shackelford Distinguished Professor in Taxation Law Emeritus here at the University of Georgia School of Law,  took part in “Court of Justice of the European Union: Recent VAT Case Law Conference“, held last week at the Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law, Vienna University of Economics and Business.

Hellerstein was a member of the panel on “Fundamental Principles and VAT,” and chaired two additional panels.

Georgia Law Professor Walter Hellerstein gives lecture in Vienna on tax law in global digital economy


Walter Hellerstein, Distinguished Research Professor & Shackelford Distinguished Professor in Taxation Law Emeritus here at the University of Georgia School of Law, recently delivered a lecture at the Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law, Vienna University of Economics and Business.

As a visiting professor at the institute, Hellerstein spoke on “Addressing the Direct and Indirect Tax Challenges of the Digital Economy: Reflections of a US State Tax Lawyer on Recent International and Subnational Developments.” Video of his lecture is here.

Georgia Law students compete in Vis arbitration moot in Vienna, Austria

A team of students once again represented the University of Georgia School of Law at the annual Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot in Vienna, Austria. (prior posts)

From left, this year’s team comprised Thomas Paris, Gretchen Edelman, Savannah Jane Story, and Graham Goldberg. Among those who supported their efforts were numerous coaches: 3L Michael Ackerman, LLM candidate Amirhossein Tanhaei, Georgia Law Dean Peter B. “Bo” Rutledge, Christopher Smith (Georgia Law JD’13) and Sara Sargeantson Burns, both attorneys at King & Spalding LLP.

Goldberg reflected on his Vis experience, which included not only the team’s competition in Vienna but also its runner-up finish in the Vis Pre-Moot that the Atlanta International Arbitration Society (AtlAS) sponsored in March:

“Over this past year, I’ve sharpened my oral and written advocacy skills more than I thought possible, and broadened my legal horizons to the world of international arbitration.”

Georgia Law Professor Hellerstein presents at Vienna tax conference

Walter Hellerstein, Distinguished Research Professor & Shackelford Distinguished Professor in Taxation Law Emeritus here at the University of Georgia School of Law, recently presented his scholarship in Austria.

Hellerstein spoke on “U.S. Experience and Recent Developments in the Collection of Tax on Online Sales” at a conference titled “Court of Justice of the European Union: Recent VAT Case Law” held at the Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law at the Wirtschafts Universität Wien / Vienna University of Economics and Business.

Georgia Law Professor Cohen presents on “Precedent” at University of Vienna

Earlier this month, Georgia Law Professor Harlan G. Cohen presented his scholarship at “Opening the Black Box of Precedent and Case-based Reasoning,” a 2-day workshop at Universität Wien/the University of Vienna in Austria.

Cohen, who is the Gabriel M. Wilner/UGA Foundation Professor in International Law and serves as the Faculty Co-Director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center at the University of Georgia School of Law, presented a work in progress entitled “The Sociology of International Precedent.” He spoke as part of a panel on “Constructing Authority of Precedent,” along with scholars based in Austria and in Denmark. The workshop also included scholars from Canada, Croatia, Finland, France, and Italy.

Center’s Laura Kagel to meet with prospective LLMs in Austria, Croatia, and Germany

LLM cover pageLaw students in Austria, Croatia, and Germany will soon have the opportunity to talk with a Dean Rusk International Law Center staffer about pursuing a degree at here at the University of Georgia School of Law.

Later this month yours truly, Laura Tate Kagel, the Center’s Associate Director of International Professional Education, will give a presentation for students at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, and take part in LL.M. fairs in Vienna, Austria, and Zagreb, Croatia. Sponsor of the fairs is EducationUSA, an arm of the U.S. Department of State.

I’ll be on hand personally to discuss the career benefits and special advantages of earning the Master of Law, or LL.M., degree at Georgia Law. (See prior posts about our current LL.M. students, as well as our hundreds of LL.M. alums, here.)

If you’d like to schedule to meet with me, please email LLM@uga.edu, and you can register for the fairs via the links below.

Monday, November 12, Mainz: 18:00-20:00, Johannes Gutenberg University, Department of Law and Economics. Email LLM@uga.edu for more details.

Wedne1sday, November 14, Vienna: 16:00 – 18:00, University of Vienna, Juridicum Dachgeschoss, 10-16 Schottenbastei, 1010. Register to attend online.

Friday, November 16, Zagreb: 18:00-20:00 at the Sheraton Hotel, Ul. kneza Borne 2, 10000. Register to attend online.

Hope to see you there!

Georgia Law students compete in Vis arbitration moot in Vienna

University of Georgia School of Law students traveled to Austria last week to take part in the 25th Annual Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot.

Pictured above in Vienna is the hardworking Georgia Law team that joined 366 other teams from across the world. From left: students Garret Drogosch, Wheaton Webb, Lanier Flanders, and Michael Ackerman, along with student coach Victoria Barker and attorney coach Sara S. Burns, an associate at the Atlanta office of King & Spalding.