Amsterdam Law School wins Jessup International Moot Court Competition

Published on 21-04-2023 11:54

The Amsterdam Law School team has won the world's largest international law moot court competition. A historic result: no team from the Netherlands has ever come this far before. A fantastic achievement by the participating students of the track Public International Law.

The moot court competition is officially called the Philip C. Jessup International Moot Court CompetitionExternal link. This is the largest and most prestigious moot court in the field of international law in the world.

After preliminary rounds in the Netherlands, the five-member team was allowed to travel to Washington D.C. in the second week of April 2023. In the end, the Amsterdam team faced Peking University in the final. Students Nataša Adžić, Clara Parry, Leopold Raab, Alia Squalli-Houssaini and Hannah Zigelski were accompanied by Sophie Schiettekatte, Máté Csernus and Hege Elisabeth Kjos.

Proud

Sophie Schiettekatte has been coaching the team since September and is incredibly proud of her students.

'The students are all strong advocates with an encyclopaedic knowledge of international law. It was really inspiring to see them getting better and better every round. The opponents also got better and better, with teams from the Philippines, Bangladesh, Ireland, Nepal, the United Kingdom, the United States, Argentina, Singapore and finally China in the final. It got really exciting at times, but every round our students achieved victory all the way to the final. This is the result of months of hard work day and night and their motivation and passion for public international law. They had tremendous stamina to keep going after each round.'

The team consisting of Nataša Adžić, Clara Parry, Leopold Raab, Alia Squalli-Houssaini and Hannah Zigelski

In the final, Hannah Zigelski and Alia Squalli-Houssaini had the honour of arguing before a panel of 3 prominent judges. These were Julia Sebutinde and Ronny Abraham, both judges at the International Court of Justice, and Florence Mumba, judge at the Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia.

Sophie: 'The moment when Alia Squalli-Houssaini won the 'best oralist' award in the final was one of the many highlights of the competition. What made this moment extra special was the fact that it was difficult for her, as a Moroccan, to get a visa to travel to the US. We only heard 2 weeks before the international rounds that she could join us.'

Trophy

Amsterdam Law School takes over the trophy from Harvard Law School, which won the competition last year. 'We hope to find a nice place for it on our campus,' says Sophie.

What is the Philip C. Jessup International Moot Court Competition

'Jessup' is the oldest and largest international moot court competition in the world, with participants from around 700 law schools from 100 countries and jurisdictions. The competition is a simulation of a fictional dispute between countries before the International Court of Justice, the judicial body of the United Nations. Named after Philip Jessup, who once served on the ICJ, the competition is organised by the International Law Students Association (ILSA) and sponsored by White & Case.

This year, it was about a case between 2 hypothetical states settling a dispute before the ICJ. At issue were a special military operation, the protection of prisoners during armed conflict, unilateral economic sanctions and states' obligations on environmentally friendly waste disposal.

News