The team from Mykolas Romeris University which comprised of students of the Law School: Anhelina Andrieieva, Oksana Panichkovska, Anna Kiknadze, Ivan Sukhorukov and team coaches Inga Motuzienė and Remigijus Jokubauskas participated in the Philip C. JESSUP International Law Moot Court Competition from March 31 to April 7, 2024, which was held in Washington (USA).
Philip C. JESSUP is a competition of public international law that has been held since 1959. This year, 143 universities from more than 80 countries participated in the international competition rounds. It is the largest and most deeply rooted competition for law students in the world. The competition consists of two parts: written and oral. In the written part of the competition, the participants must prepare two procedural documents (the claim and the counterclaim), and during the oral part, each team has 45 minutes to present the arguments. The teams are judged by current and former judges of the International Court of Justice, specialists experienced in the field of international law and professionals working within this field.
This year problems addressed in the Philip C. JESSUP competition concerned the issues of nationality (investment nationality) in international law, the competence of the International Court of Justice to resolve disputes concerning the deprivation of nationality, the exercise of the right to consular protection and the performance of the functions of the United Nations Security Council.
The MRU Law School team encountered teams from India, Tanzania, France, and China in the preliminary rounds and reached 68th position out of 143 universities in the general ranking. Procedural documents attained the 63rd position. Among more than 500 students who delivered oral arguments, Anhelina Andrieieva secured 140th position, Ivan Sukhorukov – 178th, Oksana Panichkovska – 184th.
The team’s coach Remigijus Jokubauskas states that “the performance of the MRU Law School team in this year’ s Philip C. JESSUP competition was successful and provided students with significant experience in legal writing and reasoning skills. The MRU School of Law has a deep tradition in moot court competitions and participation in the Philip C. JESSUP competition is the best place to demonstrate students’ skills in legal writing, rhetoric, and legal argumentation. It is particularly important that attention is given to participation in such moot court competitions, and that students are encouraged to participate in them and take an interest in international law”.
More information about Philip C. JESSUP can be found here: https://www.ilsa.org.
The MRU Law School team extends its gratitude to the law firms Markevičius, Gerasičkinas ir partneriai (Marger Law Firm), SORAINEN, BR LEGAL and Artur Jušinski for generous support facilitating participation in the competition.
