Jessup Moot
Posted on 15/04/2014
King’s Students are Jessup Moot World Cup Semi-Finalists
Back row (L-R) Neza Hren and Ruba Ameen King's team coaches. Front row (L-R) The King's team: Hermia Wong, Jacopo Giunta, Vinura Ladduwahetty and Mubarak Waseem.
Students from The Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London reached the semi-finals of the 2014 Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition in Washington D.C. last week. The King’s team, oralists Vinura Ladduwahetty, Mubarak Waseem and Jacopo Giunta, and researcher Hermia Wong, were the only team from a UK university to progress to the semi-finals of the competition.
The Jessup Moot is the world's largest moot court competition, with participants from over 550 law schools in more than 80 countries. The Competition is a simulation of a fictional dispute between countries before the International Court of Justice, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. One team is allowed to participate from every eligible School. Teams prepare oral and written pleadings arguing both the applicant and respondent positions of the case.
Thousands of law students from around the world work all year long on the Jessup Problem. In 2014 the problem concerned the conflict between maritime development and conservation, criminal jurisdiction and maritime salvage rights. Teams must first compete in qualifying competitions in their own countries to earn the right to advance to the White & Case International Rounds held every spring in Washington, D.C.
Dr Philippa Webb, Academic Advisor to the team said, 'In the world of international law, there is no more prestigious competition than the Jessup. It is recognised and respected by everybody from ICJ Judges, to law firm partners, to government legal advisers.'
The final results put the team in fourth place overall, achieving tenth place best combined memorials and fourth place individual best oralist went to LLB student Mubarak Waseem.
The team was coached by Neza Hren and Ruba Ameen, former King’s students who competed in the Jessup in 2013. They said, 'The team has worked incredibly hard since October to achieve this amazing success. They researched in great depth issues of public international law and advanced complex arguments in their oral and written pleadings. We are very proud of them.'
The team is grateful to the support provided by The Dickson Poon School of Law, including financial assistance, feedback from alumni and academics who judged practice moots, and the enthusiastic encouragement of the Dean, Professor David Caron, and Dr Philippa Webb in Washington D.C.
Find out more about mooting in The Dickson Poon School of Law
Read about the 2014 Jessup Competition on the International Law Students Association website