JESSUP MOOT
Founded in 1959 by students at Harvard Law School, the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition is the largest, oldest and most prestigious moot court competition in the world. Today the competition is organised by ILSA (International Law Students Association) and, each year, participants from over 550 different universities from more than 80 countries take part in this moot.
It consists of a simulation of a fictitious dispute between countries before the International Court of Justice, the judicial body of the United Nations. Teams prepare both the claim and defence positions of the case, with corresponding written submissions and oral rounds. The competition is held annually, culminating in the international tournament finals held in Washington D.C. each spring.
The Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition deals with past, present and future public international law problems. The problem competition is famous for presenting complex and topical puzzles in international law that teams must solve. Recent topics addressed by the competition have included the International Criminal Court, the international right to freedom of expression, international environmental law, the right to self-determination of peoples, and the tension between respecting human rights and responding to acts of terrorism.
Since the 2016/2017 academic year, the Francisco de Vitoria University Institute of International Studies has been collaborating in the training and preparation of the members of the team that annually represents the Carlos III University in this competition. This institution is responsible for the promotion and development of knowledge and scientific research on the international and European reality and the teaching of international and European studies. It also has an extensive teaching, research and collaborative activity in the field of international and European studies, from an interdisciplinary perspective. The team selected and managed by ANUDI to represent Universidad Carlos III de Madrid has been proclaimed champion of Spain in the 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2021 editions consecutively, subsequently representing Spain in the world rounds in Washington DC, USA.
In 2021, the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid team was recognised in the top 32 in the world. No Spanish team had ever qualified for the advanced rounds, passing the sieve of more than 600 teams at 148, then 48 and then 32. Also, two of our oralists have been ranked in the top 100 of the competition: Carlos Aldea De Vicente at number 63 of the ranking and Nazaret González Terradillos in 8th place. Finally, they were awarded with the Spirit of the Jessup Award, rewarding in this case the effort of our team to unite the Jessup community in a particularly complicated year, as the competition took place entirely online.