School of Law reaches the semi-final of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition

On 14-16 February 2020, a team of five undergraduate students from the School of Law competed in the UK national rounds of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, the largest and most prestigious international law moot court competition in the world.

This year, 16 teams from across the UK spent the weekend pleading their case before leading international law academics and practitioners at Lincoln’s Inn in London, having already submitted substantial written memorials. Key topics in this year’s problem included the legal issues arising from state succession to treaties, the use and development of lethal autonomous weapons, and from tariffs imposed by States to protect their national security interests, as well as the extent of any immunity owed to a sitting Minister of Foreign Affairs before the International Criminal Court. 

The team entered by the School of Law consisted of Jonathan Hartrick (Law with Canadian Law), Poppy Henderson (Law with South East Asian Law), Carla Hibbert (Law with Australian Law), Aleksander Kalisz (Law with European Law) and Urszula Konarska-Mikolajewicz (Law with European Law), with Christopher Sargeant acting as the team coach.

In a very strong performance, the team reached the semi-final of the competition, matching the best ever performance by a team from the school, before finally being defeated in a very close match with the team from the University of Oxford. Their success was also reflected more generally, with Aleksander Kalisz being recognised as the second best oralist in the preliminary rounds, while the team as a whole received the equal-second highest mark for their respondent memorial. Many congratulations to all those involved for all of your hard work and on your excellent achievement which was very well deserved!