On April 10, 2022, the 63rd Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition came to an end, and our team was selected as one of the top 32 teams from more than 160 teams in the preliminary and final rounds of the international competition with excellent performance (only 4 teams from the Chinese region). Our team was ranked the 12th in the world and the first in China. In addition to the group awards, two of our team members were awarded the “World Top 100 Individual Debaters”, including Xia Yiyue, a 2018 undergraduate, ranking 58th in the world, and Gu Fang, a 2021 graduate in international law, ranking 68th in advanced global rounds. At the same time, our team won the third place worldwide for the best memo, once again refreshing our best result in this international event.
Our team was guided by Ms. Lei Yidan from the Department of International Law, with Zhang Ao, a 2019 international law graduate student, as the coach; Xia Yixue, a 2018 undergraduate student, as team captain and debater; Gu Fang, a 2021 international law graduate student, Wang Rui and Liang Shiqi, 2018 undergraduates, all as debaters; while Liu Zijia, a 2020 undergraduate, and Fang Bing, a 2021 undergraduate, served as researchers. Together they worked for more than seven months for preparation, and finally won many awards in international competitions.
The Jessup International Moot Court Competition is a professional legal moot competition sponsored by the International Law Students Association and the American Society of International Law. The competition is held in English. From March 24 to April 9, the 63rd Jessup International Moot Court Competition was held online, with 160 colleges and universities from nearly 90 countries and regions around the world competing in the Preliminary Rounds, Advanced Rounds, and the Moot Court Competition.
In March, our Jessup team got a ticket to the international tournament with the third place in the domestic round and the first place in the best memo (Applicant). In the preliminary round of the international competition, our team entered the global top 94 with an absolute advantage of winning all four games. In the next round, our team defeated Xiamen University, Pelita Harapan University (Indonesia’s domestic champion), and the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, but lost to West Bengal National University of Law, Kolkata, by a small margin, and finally ranked 12th in the world with an absolute lead in total points. Our team was the first among all Chinese teams to qualify, ranking among the top 32 teams in the world. The final elimination round of the competition was held at the University of West Bengal, Kolkata. In the final elimination round, our team took on ELTE University of Hungary (2019 Jessup Global Champion). Faced with a series of questions from the judges, the team’s court members still answered calmly and showed the judges their meticulous search level and rich knowledge reserve. Although they lost to ELTE, the team’s excellent performance still left a deep impression on the judges in each game and won many positive comments.
This year’s competition has come to an end, but the teachers and students of the Law School of ZUEL will never stop working and exploring in the field of international law. Furthermore, the concept of “promoting teaching with competition, teaching with competition, and training with competition” will continue to lead the teaching reform of the first-class law discipline in our university. The moot court team will continue to play an active role in the cultivation of high-end foreign legal talents. May more and more aspiring law students take the results of this year’s competition as a ladder to climb further and further.
