CYIL Vol. 7, 2016

CYIL 7 ȍ2016Ȏ MOOT COURTS ON ISSUES OF INTERNATIONAL LAW IN 2015/2016 Moot Courts on Issues of International Law in 2015/2016 Regarding participation in international law moot courts, the academic year of 2015/2016 has indeed been a very successful year for the students of the Faculty of Law of Charles University. There have been various moot court competitions the student teams have taken part in, such as the Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, 1 the annual Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot, 2 the Central and East European Moot Competition 3 , as well as the European Human Rights Moot Court Competition. 4 The range of these competitions covers international law in its entirety – public international law, private international law and European law as well; and the results prove that the quality of Charles University teams is rising. As I have already described the Jessup in previous years already, let me just briefly mention the 2016 topic and team composition. As Jessup always focuses on current issues of international law, no one expected 2016 to be different. The compromis has opened several questions related to mass surveillance programs, immunities of cultural missions of other States and admissibility of evidence (an obvious remark to the Snowden affair). The national rounds have taken place in Brno within the premises of the Supreme Administrative Court, and the Charles University team (composed of Tomáš Bruner, Iva Čechráková, Barbora Homolková, Petr Pospíšil and Marek Teššer; coached by me) won, while also receiving the prize for the best oralist Marek Teššer. The international rounds regularly take place in Washington D.C., and the participation presents a fantastic opportunity for students from all over the world to discuss current topics. This year, the international rounds have been connected with the American Society of International Law Meeting again and a very interesting moment occurred – Benjamin Ferencz, a former prosecutor at the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal gave a moving speech there. The national rounds and participation of the winning team in the international rounds of Jessup have been again very generously sponsored by the Prague office of White and Case. White and Case has proven to be a phenomenal supporter of Jessup (in the Czech Republic and internationally) and deserves many thanks for it. Though the European Human Rights Moot Court Competition , a moot focused on protection of human rights under the European Convention on Human Rights, is a young moot court (3 years), the Charles University team (composed of

1 Official webpage of the competition https://www.ilsa.org/jessuphome. 2 Official webpage of the competition https://vismoot.pace.edu/.

3 Some information available on the webpage of Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, the 2016 host https://www.flaw.uniba.sk/en/news-detail/back_to_page/pravnicka-fakulta-uk/article/prestigious- contest-central-and-eastern-european-moot-competition-2016-ceemc-2016/. 4 Official webpage of the competition http://ehrmcc.elsa.org/about/.

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