The problem for the moot is always based on an international sales transaction subjected to the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (referred to commonly as the CISG) and also involves procedural issues of arbitration such as jurisdiction and powers of an arbitral tribunal.

The moot consists of submitting written memoranda for both claimant and respondent before the oral phase of the competition, though the written arguments have no bearing on either the preliminary rounds or knockout stages in the oral phase.

The moot is named after Willem Cornelis Vis (1924–1993), an expert in international commercial transactions and dispute settlement procedures.

Vis began to work for European co-operation in 1957 as a member of the Council of Europe Secretariat, in its human rights and legal affairs directorates, and later, in 1965, became deputy secretary-general of the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) in Rome.

[6] Vis served as executive secretary of the Vienna Diplomatic Conference that created the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG).

The director was Pace Law School's professor emeritus Eric Bergsten,[9] a former secretary of the UNCITRAL until his retirement in 2013 after the 20th annual moot.

[14] As air travel restrictions did not improve, it was decided that the 2021 and 2022 editions of both Vis moots would be online as well.

The substantive issue always entails the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG).

The written phase of the Vis Moot commences on the first Friday in October when the moot problem, consisting of initial statements of claim and defence by the parties' attorneys as well as motions regarding procedural questions and exhibits, is distributed to the participating teams.

According to an order by the arbitral tribunal, both parties have to prepare a memorandum concerning factual and procedural issues.

Elimination rounds subsequently take place on Tuesday night, Wednesday and Thursday, culminating in the final argument.

Examples of these pre-moots include: Various awards are given in both Vienna and Hong Kong for the written and oral arguments (individual and team).

The different occasions during the oral phase of the Vienna Moot have not always been held at the venues they take place at today.

From the 1st until the 3rd Vis Moot (1994–96), the oral hearings proper were held at the International Arbitral Centre of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (Wiedner Hauptstrasse 63 in Vienna's 4th district), thus taking place in the very rooms where ordinary arbitration hearings are held.

Only from the 4th Moot (1997) onwards, the oral hearings took place at the Juridicum of the Faculty of Law, University of Vienna.

It houses the moot administration (where teams and arbitrators register, the arbitrators pick up and hand in their score sheets, and tickets for the awards banquet are available), the MAA (Moot Alumni Association) desk, displays by various sponsoring law publishers (often offering special "moot deals") and - maybe most importantly - chairs, tables and lounge areas for the participants and arbitrators to meet and linger.

Since then, the field has grown rapidly: The 26th Moot, held in 2019, saw more than 300 teams enter the competition.

[22] It was founded in 1996 after the 3rd Vis Moot and is a non-profit association registered under Austrian law with its seat in Vienna.