JEDDAH — Dar Al-Hekma University has become the first institution of higher learning in the GCC to reach the top 64 teams in the 26th Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot 2018/19 in Vienna held last month. The Department of Law & Diplomacy's Vis Moot team reached the Round of 64 beating 312 other universities from around the world including Harvard University, Yale University and University of Oxford. Student Ragad Al-Faraidy also received an ‘Honorable Mention' for her accomplishments as an individual oralist. Dar Al-Hekma University were the only team from the Kingdom and the GCC to achieve these firsts. The Department of Law & Diplomacy's Vis Moot team have previously been crowned ‘Best Law Team' in the Middle East five times. Earlier this academic year, in preparation for Vienna, the team picked up accolades in the 9th Annual Middle East Vis International Commercial Arbitration Pre Moot Bahrain and the 3rd AIAC/ICC Arbitration Pre-Moot in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where they won the award for Best Claimant Memorandum, from 90 teams around the world, and beat 74 teams from around the world to be in the top 11 teams overall. They also took part in the Permanent Court of Arbitration Pre-Moot in The Hague. Here the team achieved the accolade of being amongst the top four teams. Their firsts for the Kingdom and for the whole GCC were recognized by Saudi Arabian Airlines, who made a special announcement recognizing their achievements, on the team's return flight from Vienna to Jeddah. The team were also invited to meet Saudi Arabian Airlines Director General Saleh Al-Jasser, who praised the university's efforts in raising the standards of education in the Kingdom and proudly displaying this to the world. Saudi Arabian Airlines pledged support to Dar Al-Hekma University for future competitions, as the Kingdom's national carrier. Dr. Suhair Al-Qurashi, president of Dar Al-Hekma University, said, "To achieve such firsts for not only the Kingdom but the GCC from an all female team, shows the efforts, standards and quality of the students, coaches and faculty at Dar Al-Hekma University. These prominent accomplishments have demonstrated the reputation of legal education from the Kingdom, not only to the rest of the Kingdom, but to the rest of world. We have met many well-known international universities as part of this experience, all of whom are delighted to meet such bright, astute, and articulate female future lawyers of the Kingdom. We hope to continue this success for the Kingdom by mentoring other law schools across the region". Dar Al-Hekma University's Law Vis Moot Team consisted: Lama Abumansour, Ragad Al-Faraidy, Mariam Al-Khattab, Yara Al-Sayegh, Areej Bahashwan and Bashayer Binyamin. They were coached by law graduates Jude Jamjoom and Hadeel Tayeb. The Dar Al-Hekma University Law Team Faculty Advisor for the competition was Sairah Narmah-Alqasim.
