Muhamed Tulic from Sarajevo, as a member of the Penn State Law Team, won the first place at the Willem C Vis MOOT Court (International Commercial Arbitration Competition) held in Vienna and thus became the best in the world in this field.
Mr. Tulic has completed his primary, secondary and higher education in Sarajevo. He has fond memories of his high school Prva bosnjacka gimnazija and Faculty of Law at the University of Sarajevo where he got to learn from great professors and also participate in numerous extra curriculum activities. These extra curriculum activities opened doors to new educational possibilities and one of them was the LLM program at Pennsylvania State University, from which he graduated in class of 2019. He is currently residing in State College, Pennsylvania and working in the Graduate International Program at Penn State Law. Mr. Tulic is a sports enthusiast and he enjoys learning new languages.
“I heard about Vis Moot from my friends at the Faculty of Law of University of Sarajevo who participated in earlier editions of the competition. I was immediately drawn to the entire concept of the competition because I like competing in such types of competitions known in law schools as moot courts, but this time it was even more intriguing because of the field of law that was being tested,” Mr. Tulic explained.
After a very long and rewarding competition with the vis moot team of Faculty of Law at the University of Sarajevo, he was offered a full tuition scholarship for the LLM program at Penn State Law with a condition to be a part of Penn State Law’s Vis Moot team for the 26thedition of the competition.
“Before coming to Vienna for the final rounds of the competition, their team had worked a lot over the course of the year and they were feeling pretty confident about the work they done and we came to Vienna to enjoy and present our hard work to opposing teams and arbitrators. We approached every round as it was our last and with respect to the opposing team, which helped us in having a high-quality legal debate in each round we participated. After the final round, when our team was pronounced as the overall winner of the competition we were all overwhelmed. It felt so rewarding and humbling at the same time. As important as the recognition was from the arbitrators and professionals in the field, it felt really great to be recognized by our fellow competitors who came and congratulated us and often repeated that there is no single team in this room (378 Universities from all over the world) who deserved it more. I am really grateful for the entire experience and the possibility to put our country among the winners of the most prestigious law competition in the world,” Mr.Tulic explained.
Sarajevo Times: During your engagement at Arbitrator Intelligence, you had the opportunity to collaborate with Latin American and European lawyers and arbitrators. Can you tell us more about this cooperation and do you plan to continue in the same field in the USA?
“Arbitrator Intelligence is a great initiative that wants to “rock” the arbitration world and change the way arbitrators are appointed. In succeeding at its mission, the team gathered and led by Professor Catherine Rogers, of which I was fortunate to be a part of, conducted several campaigns in order to promote its mission. We had two major campaigns, in Latin America and CEE region, where practicing lawyers, volunteered to “shake” their arbitral communities and contact fellow colleagues and arbitration institutions in order to have them join the Arbitrator Intelligence initiative. Currently we are in the pivotal stage of Arbitrator Intelligence’s mission, where we will launch prototypes of the Arbitrator Intelligence Questionnaires on arbitrators,” Mr.Tulic explained.
On the question of how do people react when Mr.Tulic says he is a Bosnian, he answers that people are usually surprised when he says he is from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and he keeps it as his fun fact.
“There are several reactions and references that people have when I mention that I’m from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The first: Edin Dzeko and Miralem Pjanic; second: Yugoslavia, third: First World War and forth, the least favourite is the unfortunate and terrible war that happened in BiH,” Mr. Tulic explained.
“Hopefully, one day I will be able to contribute to the well-being of the BIH society in some capacity,” Mr. Tulic concluded his interview with Sarajevo Times.
