4.12.2024

Spotlight on Finnish arbitration expertise: Castrén & Snellman is proud to support Vis Moot

The Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot competition brings together thousands of law students, arbitrators, and alumni from all around the world during the spring of 2025. This year, the Vis Moot will apply the Arbitration Rules of the Finland Chamber of Commerce.

Castrén & Snellman and its leading dispute resolution team are proud to support the 32nd Vis Moot and the 22nd Vis East Moot as a Gold Partner of the Finland Arbitration Institute.

Vis Moot offers a great opportunity to gain expertise in international dispute resolution and arbitration. We are excited to support students in developing their skills in this field. It’s also an honour to showcase high-quality Nordic arbitration expertise. Strong networks are vital for lawyers working in international dispute resolution and arbitration, and the friendships made during the competition often last decades,

say partners Anders Forss and Ilona Karppinen.

The Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot is a competition for law students to foster the study and practice of international commercial sales law and arbitration and provide practical training for resolving international business disputes.

The Moot involves a dispute arising out of a contract of sale between two countries that are parties to the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). The applied arbitral rules rotate yearly among the arbitration rules of co-sponsoring institutions of the Moot.

The participants will have to possibility to practise for the competition at the FAI Helsinki Pre-Moot from 27th February to 1st March, which Castrén & Snellman is hosting together with other contributing law firms. The 22nd Vis East Moot will take place from 30th March to 6th April in Hong Kong, and the 32nd Vis Moot is in Vienna from 11th to 17th April.

Latest references

We advised eQ Community Properties Fund in its acquisition of a property portfolio comprising a health centre in Espoo, a daycare property in Vantaa, an elementary school in Helsinki, and a parking facility property in Helsinki from Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Company. The lettable area of the first three properties is approximately 13,900 sq.m., while the parking facility offers 120 parking spaces. The portfolio’s tenants include the City of Helsinki, the City of Vantaa, the Western Uusimaa Wellbeing Services County, and Aimo Park Oy. In connection with the transaction, Ilmarinen invested in eQ Community Properties fund as per 31 December 2024.
Case published 9.1.2025
We successfully represented a Finnish manufacturing company in arbitration proceedings under the SCC rules against a global construction company. The dispute was governed by Finnish law and the seat of arbitration was Stockholm, Sweden. The dispute mainly concerned the termination of an erection contract and the right to compensation for delays of the project and for cost increases due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The main questions in dispute were the lawfulness of the termination of the erection contract as well as the consequences of the termination such as the right to costs to complete the project after termination, the right to liquidated damages for delay of the project and adjustment of contract price due to cost increases. The total value of the dispute exceeded EUR 15 million.
Case published 8.1.2025
We advised Korkia Oy in its loan agreement with Nordic Environment Finance Corporation. The financing will support the development and international scale-up of Korkia’s pipeline of solar energy, battery energy storage system (BESS) and onshore wind projects. Korkia is a dedicated investor in renewable energy operating in nine countries. It has a robust development pipeline of over 20 GW in renewable energy and energy storage projects.
Case published 7.1.2025
We acted as the Finnish law legal advisor to Commerzbank AG, which served as the coordinator, bookrunner, documentation agent, facility agent and security agent of an international banking syndicate. This syndicate provided an ECA-covered construction financing facility of more than EUR 1 billion for the Finnish shipyard company Meyer Turku Oy. The loan facility will be used on the construction of one new passenger cruise ship. The newbuilding is the third of the ICON class. According to Meyer Turku Oy the ICON-class ships are the world’s most advanced and the most environmentally friendly cruise ships of their owner, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines.
Case published 30.12.2024