Students of the Faculty of Law Won the European Pre-moot of the Jessup International Competition

The members of the CU Faculty of Law team were the winners of this year's pre-moot of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition. Just like last year, the team, which consisted of Stanislav Kamenický, Aleš Kartusek, Vojtěch Růžička, David Surjomartono, and Kristýna Záhorová won the pre-moot finale in Madrid, beating the runner-up team from Vienna.

The winning team was led by the Secretary to the Department of International Law of the Faculty of Law, Milan Lipovský. This year’s problem had the competitors look into four issues:

1. The jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice to hear the case under (b);
2. (Non-)violation of international law by the exercise of criminal jurisdiction over a foreign former Minister of the Interior for alleged enforced disappearance;
3. Lawfulness of fixing low-water lines in maritime law, thereby restricting the access of other countries to fishing in an area affected by the changing borderlines of an exclusive economic zone as a result of rising sea levels;
4. Lawfulness of the recognition of a foreign government created as a result of a coup and the recognition of its waiver of immunity for a government aircraft.

Each team examined all four topics, representing fictional countries in both the applicant and respondent positions.

The Czech team also won the Jessup European Friendly Rounds in Bratislava last year.

Only 48 teams out of the 152 competing teams qualified for the international round in Washington. The written pleading of the Czech students was ranked #53 in the memorial rankings. The Jessup Cup World Champion was the team from the Singapore Management University School of Law. A total of 517 students took part in the competition. Stanislav Kamenický and Kristýna Záhorová finished 59th and 194th, respectively, in the oral rankings.

The Faculty of Law and the team would like to thank the White and Case Prague office, which has been a reliable and generous supporter of the event. If you would like to know more about the Jessup, all information about this year’s competition is available HERE.