In this article, Ashok Samal of HNLU, Raipur discusses Top 10 International Moots around the World.

• A Moot Court competition is a simulation of a real-life court experience where participants argue from both the appellant’s and the respondent’s side to bring about justice to the aggrieved party.
• However, it is not necessary that you shall lose if you have to support the offender. The one with the best speaking and research skills shall take the trophy. Moots are held both at national and international levels.
• Mooting helps in increasing the practical knowledge of the participants as they experience what they would have instead experienced in a later stage of their life.
• Here is a list of the top 10 international moots all over the world. These are the most reputed and renowned moots at a global level.

Stetson International Environmental Moot Court Competition

About the Moot

• Surana and Surana International Advocates group has been conducting the Stetson, India National rounds for more than two decades now. Counting for more than 20 years and still going on, students have never missed participating in any edition of the respected and reputed Stetson moot.
• Students coming from all over the world have been participating and competing with a fiery enthusiasm to take the prestigious trophy with them.
• A group of Students from Gujarat National Law University have won the recent and 21st edition of the moot held on the issue of climate geoengineering and its impact on oceans.
• The competition is held in the later months every year with different environmental issues being addressed through the moot.

How to participate

Interested candidates can go and register on the website through this link.

Rules

First, teams would have to participate in a regional round and then after qualifying the regional round they would get a chance to compete in the world rounds.

Other detailed rules regarding moot court procedure and marking scheme can be accessed from here.

Awards

The following awards can be won by a team, notably, the Champions trophy, runners-up trophy, semifinalists, three best memorial’s, five best oralists in the Preliminary Rounds and a best oralist in the final world rounds.

Price Media Law Moot Court Competition

About the moot

• The Price Media Law Moot Court Programme was established by the programme in “Comparative Media Law & Policy” at the Oxford University in 2008.
• The moot specifically has the noble aim of fostering and cultivating interest in the right to freedom of expression and the increasing responsibility of media and information technology around the world.
• The annually held Moot Court Competition encourages students to engage in constructive research of legal precedents and to construct their arguments on the latest and unanswered fields of media and ICT law.
• The competition’s regional rounds are currently held in five areas, namely, South Asia, Asia-Pacific, South East Europe, North East Europe, Middle East and Americas. Students from diverse nations and culture heavily participate in the International Rounds held in Oxford. Countries such as Trinidad and Tobago, Belgium, India, Lebanon, Serbia and Ethiopia also take part in these competitions.
• The Price Media Law Moot Court Programme is much more huge than a moot court, it’s an experience.

How to participate

Candidates can go to the official website of the moot to register, here.

Rules

Each team may comprise of minimum 2 members and maximum 6 members, along with one coach. For more detailed rules on registration, penalties, memorial submission, the candidates can access the official rule book of the competition here.

Awards

The Price Media Law Moot awards the following prizes namely, winners, runner ups, best memorials, best individual oralist and the best speaker in the final rounds.

Nelson Mandela World Human Rights Moot Court Competition

About the Moot

• The glorious 9th Nelson Mandela World Human Rights Moot Court Competition is into its 9th Year now with its 9th Edition being held this year from 18th to 21st July 2017 at  Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.
• The Competition is founded and sponsored by the Centre for Human Rights, having its base at the University of Pretoria, with the zealous support of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, and is also in collaboration with the Regional Office for Southern Africa of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
• Both undergraduate and master’s degree law students are eligible to take part in the competition. A team comprising of two students representing each university are invited to participate in the event.
• However, the organisers prefer it that the team should be composed of a man and one woman, to promote gender equality and women’s rights. This is a very appreciable move on their part.

How to Participate

All the universities are invited by the organisors to register once information is made available on their Moot website at this link.

Rules

In the preliminary rounds, the students submit heads of argument for a hypothetical case, which are assessed by a panel of experts. The best 5 teams from each UN region are then invited to participate in the pre-final and final rounds of the Competition in Geneva. Here, teams have to argue the two sides of the hypothetical case, the Applicant and the Respondent, before a ‘bench’ of human rights experts. The two best teams proceed to the final round, which is presided over by judges from international courts and tribunals. The Competition will be held in English. More detailed rules can be found here.

Awards

For related information, their brochure can be downloaded from here.

Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition

About the Moot

• The Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, or more popularly known as the Jessup is supposed to be the largest, oldest and most prestigious moot around the world.
• Students from around 700 universities from 90 countries have participated in the reputed moot. A lot of universities and international organisations also define the moot in the same way.
• This moot is a realistic simulation of an imaginary dispute between nations, which then plead before the International Court of Justice.
• The competition is named after the famous Philip Jessup, who once served on the ICJ panel. The International Law Students Association is responsible for organising the said competition.
• It originally started as a friendly mooting competition between two teams from Harvard University in 1960. It started under the leadership of Stephen Schwebel, the author of the inaugural moot problem.
• In 1963, the first championship trophy was given away in 1963 and the doors of the competition were opened to international teams only in 1963. The university of Sydney was the latest champion of the event in 2017.

How to Participate

Candidates need to fill an online registration form available each year at the official website.

Rules

The official rules for the competition can be accessed here.

Awards

Details about awards and prizes can be accessed from here.

Henry Durant Human Rights Moot

About the Moot

• The reputed Henry Durant Human Rights national level moot is conducted every year by Indian Society of International Law and International Committee of the Red Cross in the memory of ICRC’s founder Henry Durant.
• Indian Society for International Law was founded in 1859 and was also inaugurated in the same year. It was founded by Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru.
• The principal objective of ISIL is to “foster nationwide, the study and development of International Law and to encourage the comparative study of the application of International Law in other States”.
• ICRC and ISIL have been collaborating successfully to conduct the Henry Durant Memorial Moot Court Competition, every year.

How to Participate

The regional rounds of the competition are to be held in India this time from 21st to 24th September in New Delhi. The venue for the regional rounds changes every year. The candidates can take part in this prestigious events by registering and filling up the registration form accessible here.

Rules

The speaker time in each round varies i.e., for the preliminary round they have a speaker time of 10+2 minutes and for the semifinals and quarters the permitted time is 15 minutes and for the finals, a total of 20 minutes shall be allowed at max. The detailed and official rules can be accessed in pdf format from this link.

Awards

The organisation offers a running trophy to the winning team along with medals to each winning participant. The detailed description can be found in the rules document itself.

Red Cross International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Moot

About the Moot

• The Red Cross International Humanitarian Law Moot is proudly organised by Hong Kong Red Cross Society and International Committee of the Red Cross in collaboration with Faculty of Law, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Faculty of Law, the University of Hong Kong.
• The principal objectives behind organising the moot court competition is to raise awareness relating to international humanitarian issues among law students and to increase knowledge and application of International Humanitarian Law.

How to Participate

Students can participate by filling up a very simple registration form.

Rules

Each team shall consist of two mooters, one researcher and a faculty coach, if it shall be possible to being one. Further rules regarding scoring, disqualifications can be accessed on the organisers official page here.

Awards

The winning team shall be awarded a trophy, individual certificates and a cash prize of $ 2000. The runners up are given the same awards except the fact that they receive a cash prize of $ 1000. Further detail information can be found in Rule 22 of the official rulebook.

Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition

About the moot

• The Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition was started by International Institute of Space Law in 1992.
• It covers a total of four world regions, namely, North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Africa. Participation amounts to more than 60 teams in a year.
• The teams that successfully register get exclusive and free access to papers of the IISL’s colloquium proceedings from 2005.
• The regional winners out of the four world regions receive monetary support from IISL to attend the world finals.

“This moot finds its place along with other internationally acclaimed moots as it has a tradition of placing the Judges of the International Court of Justice in the bench presiding over the world finals.”

• The World Finals competition is conducted within the structure of the IISL’s annual Colloquium, which is an exclusive event in the International Astronautical Congress and is held on a different continent annually. This particular moot offers an uncontested Educational experience to all teams at all rounds.

How to Participate

To register participants need to simply fill out the registration form here.

Rules

Students who participated in a prior edition of the competition and won it shall not participate again. For further specific rules, you can refer to the official rulebook.

Awards

The winners receive the Manfred Lachs Trophy and also, best memorial and best orator awards are given by the organisation.

International Criminal Court Moot Court Competition

About the Moot

• The International Criminal Court Moot Court Competition is conducted annually by the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies and was founded by the Pace Law School in 2004.
• The competition is held in the month of May in the Hague, Netherlands.
• Universities all around the world are invited for taking part in a large-scale moot court competition simulating the proceedings of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
• The Competition comprises of an extensive six-day social and educational program, which brings together students of different backgrounds and cultures to The Hague to test their skillsets as future international lawyers.
• The object behind this moot is to extend support for international law and the fight for liberty by gathering the young generations’ support.
• The Competition involves collaboration with judges from international courts and tribunals, professors of international criminal law, and other legal experts. This combination makes the moot court seem as real as possible.

How to Participate

The deadline for submitting the forms is October every year. For completing the registration process, completed registration forms can be submitted by email to ([email protected]) during the registration period only.

Rules

All participating teams must have to mandatorily nominate the name of one person to be on the panel. The list to select from shall be provided by the organisers. Selective rules can be found here.

Awards

ICC awards the winners, runners-up, second runners up and third prize. Further differentiated award list can be found at the end of the rulebook.                                    

The Annual Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot

About the Moot

• This prestigious international Moot is organized by the Association for the Organization and Promotion of the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot.
• The objective behind conducting this moot is to promote the study of international commercial law and arbitration for the purpose of international business dispute resolution.
• The goal of the Vis Arbitral Moot is to foster the study of international commercial law and arbitration for resolution of international business disputes through its application to a concrete problem of a client and to train law leaders of tomorrow in methods of alternative dispute resolution.
• The business community’s likeness and the pacifying effect of arbitration as a method for resolving international commercial disputes is the reason it was selected as the preferable method to train law students through two important phases; the preparation of memorandums for the appellant and defendant sides and the hearing of spoken argument based upon the memorandums.                                                                   

How to Participate

The candidates need to fill the registration certificate before he can be held eligible. The registration form is easily accessible on the official website of the organisers.

Rules

Rules can be accessed from here.

Awards

Along with the winners and runners-up trophy many other prizes are given away by the organisation itself. More details can be garnered from the rulebook given above.

Leiden-Sarin Air Law Moot Court Competition

About the Moot

• The Leiden Sarin Air Law Moot Court is conducted by Sarin Memorial Legal Aid Foundation and International Institute of Air and Space Law of Leiden University in the Netherlands, along with thee Maltese Ministry of Tourism and the University of Malta.
• This is the eighth edition of the reputed contest. Students can to their advantage learn a lot from this moot court about international law and also can make a good contact base around the world.
• The Competition has been conducted this year from 6-9 April 2017 in Valletta, Malta.

How to Participate

In case more than 3 countries register from one country, a national selection round shall be held to determine which university shall represent the nation. A simple registration form is available on this link.

Rules

The competition shall be judged by three duly qualified judges in accordance with the rules of this competition available here.

Awards

There shall be a championship trophy which shall be given to the winners who will be decided on the basis of the aggregate number of team score.

Conclusion

This article representing these moots to be the best in the world, however, does not represent any kind of ranking of any sort. To determine that these moots are the best globally, their popularity among law students and their vibrant history has been considered. This is completely the authors’ analysis.

Participating in these moots has a great impact on a law student as it gives him unlimited exposure and a chance to make contacts on a global level. Although mooting is an art that requires specific skill set and sometimes years of experience to master, but this first ever Online course developed by champion mooters has made it simpler to ace the Mooting game. So gear up and mark the dates on your calendar, participate in these moots to experience on a practical level, what it will be, to argue in front of an actual court, against an actual lawyer.