HONORARY PRESIDENT/FOUNDER & PRESIDENT
The Vis Moot Association was founded in 2007 as a non-profit organization under Austrian law as the legal entity that runs the Vis Moot. Currently, the Vis Moot Association is led by its President, Dr. Patricia Shaughnessy, Associate Professor at Stockholm University. The Vis Moot is operated by the Directors Prof. Christopher Kee, Prof. Stefan Kröll, and Mag. Patrizia Netal under the auspices of the Vis Moot Association.
In 1993, the Vis Moot has been founded by Prof. Dr. Eric E. Bergsten, who has run the Vis Moot for decades and served as President and Honorary President of the Vis Moot Association.
THE PRESIDENT
PATRICIA SHAUGHNESSY
Dr. Patricia Shaughnessy, is a professor at Stockholm University specialised in international disputes and commercial law. Patricia has long been an avid supporter of the Willem C. Vis Arbitration Moot, active in the “VIS” organization, coaching and serving as an arbitrator. She is a member of the ICC Court of Arbitration, the ICC Commission, and formerly the Vice-Chair and Board member of the SCC Arbitration Institute (2006 – 2018), as well a Board member of other international arbitration institutions and organizations. She was a government-appointed expert for the recent revisions to the Swedish Arbitration Act. She serves as an arbitrator and expert, and as a senior expert consultant in legal development projects in many countries. She taught and practiced law (specialized in commercial and civil litigation), for ten years in the United States and has served as a US Supreme Court judicial fellow.
THE HONORARY PRESIDENT/FOUNDER
ERIC E. BERGSTEN
After law school at the University of Michigan and three years as a JAG officer in the Pentagon, Eric Bergsten studied French law at the University of Chicago and at Aix-en-Provence. Eric’s doctoral thesis was on the law of treaties in the French courts. On his return from France, Eric began teaching commercial law and international law at the University of Iowa, where he remained for thirteen years. In 1975 Eric joined the staff of UNCITRAL in New York, where he was primarily responsible for what became the UN Sales Convention, or the CISG. In 1979, the headquarter of UNCITRAL was transferred to Vienna, where Eric remained for the next twelve years until his retirement in 1991. The last six of those years Eric was the Secretary of UNCITRAL. After retirement Eric spent a year as a visiting professor at Fordham University after which he joined the Pace Law School faculty, where he stayed for seven years before returning to Vienna. It was at Pace where the story of the Vis Moot began.
Professor Bergsten has organized the Vis Moot’s first 20 editions. In 2022, he stepped down from his role as the President of the Vis Moot Association after 30 years and was appointed Honorary President of the Vis Moot Association. Professor Bergsten passed away in July 2023. The remarkable vision of Professor Bergsten created an incredible legacy that has impacted the education, professional development, and personal lives of many thousands of students, practitioners, and academics for over three decades, and continues to live on in the Vis Moot.
The Directors of the Vis Moot have published this obituary to honor Professor Bergsten’s remarkable career and enduring achievements.