A team of RAU students in Law won the national round of the Competition on the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition (Jessup-2023).

 

Jessup is a moot court: teams practice their skills in the International Court of Justice, the courts of the United Nations, among others. Students from all over the world take part in it. At first, the national stage of the competition is held, and then the winning team represents their country at the international round.

 

This year, the court within the framework of the competition was held on highly relevant topics: the right of belligerency, issues of environmental law and sanctions.

The victory for Team RAU did not come easily. According to the participants, emotions were running high, but at the same time they felt pride and responsibility.

 

"Winning this competition has been my long-standing goal. Jessup is a completely different world where you compete with the best of the best of your generation. In 2019, I was also part of the RAU team in this moot court, although I was not a presenter. At that time we ranked second. This time victory was the only option. We had been preparing for the contest for many months and approached it with complete confidence in our victory. Our opponents were very well prepared, which made the game more interesting and more intense," - Mikael Arshakyan, a Master’s student in International Public Law and European Law, shared his impressions.

 

It should also be noted that one of the members of Team RAU, Svetlana Chakhmakhchyan, a Master’s student in International Public Law and European Law, shared her impressions. 

 

"We had classes every day. We put a lot of effort and energy into this competition. We were very anxious, but we got completely used to the role and felt like representatives of those countries that we represented within the game. The fate of entire states was in our hands. Our coaches Areg Malkhasyan and Shushanna Aleksanyan helped and supported us in everything, for which we express our heartfelt gratitude“,  emphasized Svetlana Chakhmakhchyan.

 

Note that Jessup is the world's largest litigation competition, attended by representatives of approximately 700 law schools in 100 countries and jurisdictions. The teams prepare oral and written pleadings, which set out the positions of both the applicant and the defendant in the case.

 

 

 

Translated by Elen Minasyan,
I year Master’s Student in Translation & Interpretation, RAU