CYIL vol. 7 (2016)

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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 Competition3, 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
2 Official webpage of the competition
3 Some information available on the webpage of Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, the 2016
host
contest-central-and-eastern-european-moot-competition-2016-ceemc-2016/.
4 Official webpage of the competition