What is the primary purpose of the Madrid Vis Pre-Moot?

The Madrid Vis Pre-Moot serves as a preparatory event for college-level participants, allowing them to practice and refine their skills in international commercial law and arbitration before the main competition.

Where is the Madrid Vis Pre-Moot held?

The event is held in the city of Madrid, ESP.

What level of participants is this event designed for?

The Madrid Vis Pre-Moot is designed for college-level participants.

Madrid Vis Pre-Moot (MVPM) 2026

Feb 23–25, 2026Madrid, SpainIn-person

ConcludedRegistration closed

The Madrid Vis Pre-Moot (MVPM) is a preparatory event designed for college-level participants in international commercial law and arbitration. Hosted in Madrid, ESP, this pre-moot offers a crucial platform for teams to refine their arguments and advocacy skills before the main competition. It emphasizes practical application of legal knowledge in a simulated arbitration setting.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 2 countries stand on the dominant committee topic. Click through for the full country profile.

Spain

As the host nation, Spain provides the venue and logistical support for the Madrid Vis Pre-Moot.

Role in topic

Spain plays a significant role by hosting this international pre-moot, contributing to the development of future legal professionals in international commercial law and arbitration. Its legal institutions and academic community often provide arbitrators and experts for the event.

Austria

Austria is the traditional host of the main international commercial arbitration moot competition.

Role in topic

While not directly involved in hosting the MVPM, Austria is central to the broader context as the location of the main competition for which the MVPM serves as preparation. This connection highlights the MVPM's role in preparing teams for a globally recognized event.

Topics & background

The history behind each committee topic and the states that shape it.

Corte Internacional de Justicia (CIJ)

International Court of Justice (ICJ)

The International Court of Justice, established in 1945 as the principal judicial organ of the United Nations under Article 92 of the UN Charter, succeeded the Permanent Court of International Justice of the League of Nations era. Seated at the Peace Palace in The Hague, the Court adjudicates contentious cases between states that have consented to its jurisdiction and issues advisory opinions at the request of UN organs and specialized agencies. Its fifteen judges, elected by the General Assembly and Security Council for nine-year terms, decide disputes on the basis of treaties, custom, general principles of law, and judicial precedent under Article 38 of its Statute. The Court has shaped international law through landmark rulings such as Corfu Channel (1949), Nicaragua v. United States (1986), and the Nuclear Weapons Advisory Opinion (1996). In recent years its docket has grown markedly, with high-profile proceedings including The Gambia v. Myanmar on the Genocide Convention, South Africa v. Israel on alleged violations in Gaza, Ukraine v. Russia, and the 2024 Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of Israel's Policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as well as the 2025 Advisory Opinion on States' climate obligations. Despite its expanding caseload, the ICJ continues to face structural limits: it depends on state consent to jurisdiction, lacks direct enforcement powers, and relies on the Security Council under Article 94 to compel compliance — a mechanism vulnerable to the veto. Debates over the Court's legitimacy, the politicization of provisional measures, and the implementation of its judgments remain central to its evolving role.

Key players

International Press Corps

The international press has long served as both witness to and participant in global diplomacy, from the wire services that covered the Versailles negotiations to the broadcast journalism that shaped public understanding of the Cold War. The post-1945 order institutionalized press access to multilateral fora — the UN, Bretton Woods institutions, and regional bodies — embedding journalism in the practice of international relations. UNESCO's 1978 Mass Media Declaration and successive UN General Assembly resolutions on the safety of journalists reflect repeated, if contested, efforts to articulate norms protecting press freedom. Today the profession operates under acute pressure. According to UNESCO and the Committee to Protect Journalists, the years since 2022 have produced record numbers of journalist killings, particularly in Gaza, Ukraine, Mexico, and the Sahel. Legal frameworks such as the EU's Digital Services Act and Media Freedom Act, alongside contested anti-disinformation laws in numerous jurisdictions, are reshaping the regulatory environment. Generative AI, platform consolidation, and the collapse of advertising-based business models simultaneously threaten the economic foundations of independent reporting. The core disputes facing the press corps concern the boundary between regulation of harmful content and censorship, the legal status and protection of journalists in armed conflict under the Geneva Conventions, the obligations of digital platforms, and the credibility of journalism in an environment of synthetic media. These debates intersect with state interests in narrative control and with civil society demands for accountability.

Key players

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

NATO was founded by the 1949 Washington Treaty as a collective defense pact among twelve North Atlantic states, anchored in Article 5's commitment that an armed attack on one member is an attack on all. Conceived to deter Soviet expansion in Europe, the Alliance survived the Cold War's end by reinventing itself: enlargement absorbed former Warsaw Pact states beginning with the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland in 1999; out-of-area operations took NATO to the Balkans, Afghanistan (the only invocation of Article 5, following 9/11), and Libya; and partnerships extended cooperation to non-members across the globe. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 produced the most consequential shift in NATO's posture since 1991. The Alliance reinforced its eastern flank, adopted the 2022 Strategic Concept identifying Russia as the most significant and direct threat and naming China a systemic challenge, and welcomed Finland (2023) and Sweden (2024) as members, ending decades of Nordic non-alignment. The 2023 Vilnius and 2024 Washington summits committed members to defense spending of at least 2% of GDP and laid groundwork for sustained support to Ukraine, while the 2025 Hague Summit endorsed a higher 5% defense and security spending target amid pressure from the second Trump administration. The Alliance now confronts simultaneous challenges: sustaining Ukraine, managing transatlantic burden-sharing tensions, integrating new members, deterring hybrid and cyber threats, and clarifying its posture toward the Indo-Pacific through partnerships with Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand.

Key players

Double Delegation: Disarmament and International Security Committee (DISEC)

Disarmament and International Security Committee (DISEC, GA First Committee)

DISEC, the First Committee of the UN General Assembly, was established under Article 11 of the UN Charter to address disarmament, global challenges, and threats to peace. Operating by majority vote without veto, it produces recommendations that have catalyzed major treaties — the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (1968), the Chemical Weapons Convention (1993), the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (1996), the Arms Trade Treaty (2013), and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (2017). It works in tandem with the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva and the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs. The contemporary agenda is increasingly shaped by emerging technologies. Negotiations within the CCW Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems have intensified since 2023, with a majority of states supporting a binding instrument requiring meaningful human control while a small group of militarily advanced states resists. The Open-Ended Working Group on ICTs continues to develop norms of responsible state behavior in cyberspace. Outer space security, after destructive ASAT tests by Russia (2021) and the US moratorium pledge (2022), remains contested, with PAROS negotiations stalled and parallel tracks at the OEWG on space threats producing limited consensus. Classical arms control is simultaneously eroding: the New START treaty expires in February 2026 with no successor agreed, Russia has suspended its participation, and the INF Treaty collapsed in 2019. Nuclear modernization across all P5 states, the DPRK's continued testing, and Iran's expanded enrichment compound the strategic environment DISEC must address.

Key players

World Bank Group

The World Bank Group was created at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference, with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) initially financing post-war European reconstruction before pivoting to development lending. The Group now comprises five institutions — IBRD, IDA (concessional lending to low-income countries), IFC (private sector), MIGA (political risk insurance), and ICSID (investment dispute settlement) — and is the world's largest source of development finance, with shareholder voting weighted by capital contribution and the presidency traditionally held by an American national. The Bank's policy direction has been substantially reshaped under the 'Evolution Roadmap' launched in 2023 and advanced under President Ajay Banga since June 2023. The new mission — 'a world free of poverty on a livable planet' — formally integrates climate, pandemics, and fragility into the core mandate. The Group has expanded hybrid capital instruments, callable capital reforms, and guarantees through a consolidated platform to scale lending without a general capital increase, while pursuing record IDA21 replenishment commitments in late 2024 to support the poorest countries. Core disputes persist over governance reform and voice for developing economies, the balance between climate conditionality and sovereign priorities (particularly fossil fuel financing), debt sustainability amid a wave of distress in low-income countries, and coordination with the IMF, regional development banks, and the rising BRICS-led New Development Bank. The Bank's role in financing the Just Energy Transition Partnerships and in the G20 Common Framework for debt treatment remains central to its 2026 agenda.

Key players

United Nations Security Council (UNSC)

Established under Chapter V of the UN Charter, the Security Council holds primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. Its fifteen members — five permanent (P5: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States) with veto power, and ten elected for two-year terms — can authorize binding measures under Chapter VII, including sanctions and the use of force. Since 1945 the Council has authorized over 70 peacekeeping operations, established the ICTY and ICTR tribunals, and shaped sanctions regimes from Iraq to North Korea. The Council is now in a period of pronounced paralysis. Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 placed a P5 member at the center of an aggression case, while the Gaza war that began in October 2023 produced repeated US vetoes of ceasefire resolutions and Russian and Chinese vetoes of competing texts. Sudan's war between the SAF and RSF since April 2023 has generated the world's largest displacement crisis with limited Council leverage. Sanctions monitoring has also eroded: the DPRK Panel of Experts was dissolved in April 2024 after a Russian veto, and the Mali sanctions regime ended in 2023. Reform debates — the G4 bid (Brazil, Germany, India, Japan) for permanent seats, the African Union's Ezulwini Consensus demanding two permanent African seats, and the France-Mexico initiative on veto restraint in mass atrocity situations — gained renewed momentum at the 2024 Summit of the Future, though no concrete enlargement is in sight. Cyber norms, AI in the military domain, and climate-security linkages increasingly populate the agenda.

Key players

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

UNODC was created in 1997 through the merger of the UN Drug Control Programme and the Centre for International Crime Prevention, consolidating the UN's response to drugs, transnational organized crime, corruption, and terrorism. Headquartered in Vienna, it serves as custodian of the three international drug control conventions (1961, 1971, 1988), the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (Palermo, 2000) and its three protocols on trafficking in persons, migrant smuggling, and firearms, and the UN Convention against Corruption (Merida, 2003). It supports the Commission on Narcotic Drugs and the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. The contemporary landscape has shifted dramatically. The synthetic opioid crisis, driven by fentanyl and its precursors largely manufactured in or trafficked through China, India, and Mexico, has produced unprecedented overdose mortality in North America. Captagon trafficking from the Levant, methamphetamine surges from the Golden Triangle, and the Taliban's 2022 opium ban — which collapsed Afghan production by over 95% according to UNODC's 2024 World Drug Report — have reshaped supply dynamics. Simultaneously, cybercrime, ransomware, online scam compounds in Southeast Asia trafficking hundreds of thousands of victims, and crypto-enabled money laundering have outpaced existing legal frameworks. The 2024 CND Mid-Term Review revealed deep divisions between states pursuing harm reduction and decriminalization (much of Western Europe, parts of Latin America) and those maintaining prohibitionist enforcement (Russia, China, much of Asia and the Gulf). Negotiations on a new UN Convention against Cybercrime concluded in 2024 amid human rights concerns over its scope. UNODC's chronic underfunding — over 90% of its budget is earmarked voluntary contributions — constrains its operational reach.

Key players

United States House of Representatives

The House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, established by Article I of the 1787 Constitution. Its 435 voting members are apportioned among the states by population and elected every two years, giving it the most direct democratic mandate among federal institutions. The House holds the exclusive constitutional power to originate revenue bills, initiate impeachment proceedings, and elect the president when the Electoral College fails to produce a majority. It operates under majoritarian rules through the Rules Committee, the Speaker's agenda control, and a committee system that conducts the bulk of legislative drafting and oversight. The modern House has become a focal point of partisan polarization. Narrow majorities since 2022 have produced fractious leadership contests — including the historic 2023 removal of Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the first such ouster in US history — and recurrent fiscal cliffs over debt ceilings, continuing resolutions, and government shutdowns. Foreign policy battles over Ukraine aid, Israel assistance, and the future of Taiwan-related legislation have repeatedly tested party discipline, as have impeachment inquiries and investigations of executive branch conduct. The House's 2026 agenda is shaped by the second Trump administration's legislative priorities: extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provisions, immigration enforcement funding, tariff policy oversight, and contested appropriations battles. Recurring institutional questions include the use of continuing resolutions in lieu of regular order, the scope of executive overreach, the role of the discharge petition, and the constitutional balance between Congress and the presidency on war powers and the power of the purse.

Key players

Key terms & resources

The concepts worth knowing before Madrid Vis Pre-Moot (MVPM) 2026, plus lessons and profiles to go deeper.

Arms Trade Treaty Collective Security Treaty Organization back office Charter of the United Nations 13 Steps disarmament Ad Hoc Committee Cybercrime

In the news

Recent reporting to ground your prep

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Frequently asked questions

Related conferences

Madrid Vis Pre-Moot (MVPM) 2026

Feb 23–25, 2026Madrid, SpainIn-person

ConcludedRegistration closed

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 2 countries stand on the dominant committee topic. Click through for the full country profile.

Spain

As the host nation, Spain provides the venue and logistical support for the Madrid Vis Pre-Moot.

Role in topic

Austria

Austria is the traditional host of the main international commercial arbitration moot competition.

Role in topic

Topics & background

The history behind each committee topic and the states that shape it.

Corte Internacional de Justicia (CIJ)

International Court of Justice (ICJ)

Key players

International Press Corps

Key players

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

Key players

Double Delegation: Disarmament and International Security Committee (DISEC)

Disarmament and International Security Committee (DISEC, GA First Committee)

Key players

World Bank Group

Key players

United Nations Security Council (UNSC)

Key players

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

Key players

United States House of Representatives

Key players

Key terms & resources

The concepts worth knowing before Madrid Vis Pre-Moot (MVPM) 2026, plus lessons and profiles to go deeper.

Arms Trade Treaty Collective Security Treaty Organization back office Charter of the United Nations 13 Steps disarmament Ad Hoc Committee Cybercrime

In the news

Recent reporting to ground your prep

Hilton-Becerra Race Sets Up High-Stakes Clash

Story

White House Prepares for 2026 Democratic Win

Story

Democrats Propose 17-Member Panel on Trump

Story

Arming an archipelago: Is time running out for Europe's oldest DMZ? | Euronews

Story

Country perspectives

Topics & background

Key terms & resources

Frequently asked questions

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Country perspectives

Topics & background

Key terms & resources

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Related conferences

2026 Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition – Spanish National Rounds

Madrid Vis Pre-Moot 2026 (11th edition)

Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court – National Round (Bucharest) 2026

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Related conferences

2026 Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition – Spanish National Rounds

Madrid Vis Pre-Moot 2026 (11th edition)

Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court – National Round (Bucharest) 2026

9th LUMS International Moot Court Competition

XVIII Competición Internacional de Arbitraje y Derecho Mercantil (Moot Madrid 2026)

XVIII Moot Madrid International Arbitration and Commercial Law Competition