International Criminal Court Moot Court Competition
Students of the Faculty of Law of Comenius University Bratislava participated in the prestigious International Criminal Court Moot Court Competition in The Hague, the Netherlands.
Students Kiana Rostami, Yevheniia Mordovtseva, Ľubica Kubíková, Eva Hamasova and Veronika Sima participated in the ICC Moot Court Competition in The Hague, the Netherlands, which took place form 2-9 June 2023.
The International Criminal Court Moot Court Competition is a major event that tests the skills of students. ICCMCC is the largest moot court in the field of international criminal law. Teams always represent three parties, the prosecution and defence, the victims or interveners in both the written and oral rounds of the competition. The competition addresses allegations of crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression. In addition to the substantive law, the disputants address issues of jurisdiction, evidence and fair trial. The competition is held annually in The Hague, the Netherlands. More than 80 teams from all over the world participated. Our team pleaded 6 times for all three parties in the main part.
We asked the student Ľubica Kubíková why she enrolled in this subject, what feelings she had during and after the competition, whether she enjoys this subject and also to whom she does not recommend enrolling in this subject.
„I first learned about Moot Court in my third year from a classmate, it seemed like a great platform to practice my legal skills in a foreign language, so I decided to apply. I chose moot court in front of an international criminal court, and the whole competition consists of two phases:(i) written part, where you have to write submissions for three parties on a specific case, followed by (ii) oral, where you via the designated speaker present your case on behalf of a specific party in front of 3 to 4 experts in the field. The competition itself was very beneficial for me personally, as I definitely improved my professional written/oral expression in English, research as well as the application of legal rules and court decisions to a specific case. As for my feelings about the overall competition, if you asked me two months ago, I would have told you never again; but now I feel just the opposite, and if I have the time I will apply again. My advice to prospective applicants if I were to give any advice would probably be two tips: (i) choose a Moot/area that you are interested in and enjoy at university, as the subject takes up a huge amount of your time that you could be spending more conveniently. There's nothing worse than putting your efforts into something that doesn't really satisfy you, (ii) think twice whether you really have the capacity, if you already have two jobs or other activities and you can barely keep up with your Moot exams, I don't recommend it. „
The successful representation of our students shows us that the subject of Moot Court brings results and develops the talents of our students. The final results will be announced by the organiser by the end of the month.