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MOOT COURTS ON ISSUES OF INTERNATIONAL LAW 2013/2014
MOOT COURTS ON ISSUES OF INTERNATIONAL LAW
2013/2014
Last year I summarized the moot court competitions that undergraduate students
of public international law took part in under the supervision of teachers from the
Department of International Law of Charles University School of Law. Since the
participation of our students is regular, as is the case for many of these competitions,
and some other students have also appeared, I have been asked to summarize these
interesting events again. I have personal experience with some of the mentioned
competitions; regarding the others I relied on information provided by colleagues
who supervised (coached) the students.
As I mentioned last year, the numbers of competitions focused on international
law are rising and it is sometimes hard to orient oneself with respect to all the
participation offers, as if they were a large maze. That is why I would like to repeat
the successes and participation of our students not only to compliment them but also
to make a list of what we have taken part in.
There were many so called moot courts supervised by teachers from the Department
of International Law, such as Jessup, Telders, the asylum moot, the European human
rights moot court, the VIS moot, and others. We have also received invitations to
take part in other moots; however capacity reasons only allowed us to take part in
the above mentioned.
As well as in the previous year I coached the Jessup team, so my remarks about
this competition are based on personal experience and, obviously, even feelings about
the moot. The Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition focuses
on a current topic every year. The 2014 season revised the protection of underwater
cultural heritage together with protection of fisheries rights. These issues are obviously
not natural for students from an inland state; however, the Charles University team,
consisting of 5 undergraduate students, fought well. Since Jessup is probably the
most prestigious moot court in international law, the competition becomes tougher
and tougher every year, even on the national level. This academic year, only two
university teams competed (Charles University and Palacký University), but that
has not diminished the attractiveness and excitement of the national rounds at all.
Masaryk University did not compete this year, but Brno provided neutral ground on
the premises of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic for the competition.
The above mentioned excitement was kept up until the last moment because both
teams had done a very good job, and so the results were very tight. Our team won,
and Palacký University was offered the possibility to come to D.C. as an exhibition
team. This is a new rule in the competition, allowing teams that ended very close
“under the line” to go to D.C. and compete in extra rounds.