Congratulations to our students who made it all the way to the quarter finals of the Philip C. Jessup Moot Court Competition earlier this month.

We caught up with the team to find out more about it.

As the world’s largest moot competition, the Philip C. Jessup Moot Court Competition isn’t just any mooting competition. National qualifying rounds are held in over 100 countries and jurisdictions, to find the 680 teams that will compete in the championships, held in Washington DC.

The work and commitment that competing would take was immense, and altogether, a quarter final finish in the UK qualifying rounds last weekend was a huge achievement for the team. But how did we get there?

Auditions were held for Warwick’s first Jessup team for a very, very long time in late October. The five (Annabel Pemberton, Nisali Pieris, James Smith, Eleanor Umeyor and Kálmán Varga) were chosen and worked immediately researching International Law issues for the memoranda for both the applicant and respondent. The problem posed the issues of state attributability, environmental law, endangered species, violations of cultural and religious rights and intellectual property in International Law. Countless hours of research, group meetings and 19,000 words later resulted in two complete documents ready for the early January deadline.

Since January the team have been practicing their advocacy. They had all mooted before, Annabel even competed in Jessup whilst on her year abroad in Helsinki, but the style of UK Jessup was unique. As a panel of three judges could interrupt the team at any time in their 20 minute pleadings, Jessup is more of a dialogue than a presentation. The rounds therefore required a lot of practice, resulting in kindly volunteered practice rounds with Professors and PHD students in the Law school, and sessions with their coach Dr Mohsen al Attar.

The weekend of Jessup in itself was intense, with the competition running from Friday to Sunday. 16 teams were competing at Grays Inn, London, to become one of the two UK teams that would proceed to Washington DC. After the team’s preliminary rounds, they progressed to the quarter finals early Sunday morning. The team was up against the eventual 2019 national champions (Kings College London) and the moot was fierce, testing mastery of aspects of the subject. Despite the loss, the team impressed the judges, partners, arbitrators, and professors from the UK and beyond.

Well done to the team! The Law School is immensely proud of your hard work and commitment.