Students win UK Jessup Moot Competition
L-R: Jagoda Klimowicz (LLB, third year); Monika Tobjasz (LLB, third year); Aqeel Nooral (alumnus and coach); Caleb Kirton (LLB, third year); Rishikeesh Wijaya (LLB, second year); Ng Kit Chong (LLB, second year); Mubarak Waseem (alumnus and coach)
For the second year in a row, a team of students from The Dickson Poon School of Law have won the UK championship of the Philip C Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition. The team will now represent the UK in the international rounds of the competition in Washington DC, held in April.
Now in its 58th year, the Philip C Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition 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 UN's principal judicial organ.
The King's team, consisting of Caleb Kirton (LLB, third year), Jagoda Klimowicz (LLB, third year), Ng Kit Chong (LLB, second year), Monika Tobjasz (LLB, third year) and Rishikeesh Wijaya (LLB, second year), have been working on this year’s fictitious problem for several months. The problem touches on cutting-edge issues in public international law such as the equitable use of transboundary water resources, damage to world heritage, overlapping claims to cultural property and State to State compensation for refugee outflows.
The team is coached by dedicated King’s alumni Aqeel Noorali (LLB 2010) and Mubarak Waseem (LLB 2014, LLM 2016). In the oral phase of the national competition which took place between 24-26 February 2017, the team won all of their preliminary rounds against Inner Temple, University of Aberdeen, University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge, being the only team to have won all four of their preliminary moots before the knock-out stage of the competition.
The team faced strong competition against a team from the London School of Economics in the semi-finals but emerged victorious going into the Grand Final. The Grand Final against University College London was judged by a distinguished panel including Sir Michael Wood, the former FCO Legal Adviser and International Law Commission’s Special Rapporteur for Customary International Law, Mr Qudsi Rasheed, legal adviser to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as well as Dr Kate Parlett, an international law specialist from 20 Essex Street.
The King’s team was victorious, becoming the UK National Champions. Both King's (as Champions) and UCL (as runners up) advance to Washington DC to represent the United Kingdom in the international rounds of the competition.
The team and coaches are very grateful for all of the support that they have received in preparation for the competition, including from Lucas Bastin (Essex Court Chambers), Andrew Carruth (Quadrant Chambers), and Wesley Pang (Shearman and Sterling LLP). The team also sincerely thanks King’s academic staff for their support and advice, including Dr Holger Hestermeyer, Dr Emily Hudson, and Dr Philippa Webb.