Two SMU students from the Yong Pung How School of Law have emerged world champions at the 14th Nelson Mandela World Moot Court Competition which took place at the Palais des Nations in Geneva from 18 to 21 July 2022!

Duncan Lim and Ling Shu Yi, both second-year law undergraduates, were coached by alumnus Kenny Lau (Class of 2014). Their achievement is particularly notable not just because this was SMU’s debut at the international rounds of this competition, but also because many of the teams SMU faced in the nine rounds of competition featured former Jessup mooters; the semi-final against Oxford was a particularly close one.

The annual competition, which is held in English, French and Spanish, is the only global moot court competition dedicated to human rights. It is co-organised by the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, the Academy on Human Rights, Washington College of Law, American University, and the United Nations Human Rights Council Branch (HRCB), at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Each year, a new case is carefully developed for the moot competition, drawing on current global human rights issues – these range from human rights and artificial intelligence, over terrorism and mercenaries, to the right to not be discriminated against on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity.

The best 10 teams from each UN region come together for the pre-final, quarter-final, semi-final and final rounds of the Competition in Geneva, Switzerland. Once in Geneva, teams have to argue the two sides of a hypothetical case, representing, alternatively, both the Applicant and the Respondent before a ‘bench’ of human rights experts. The two best teams advance to the final round, which is presided by judges from international courts and tribunals and international human rights experts.

SMU also made its debut at the John H. Jackson Moot Court Competition on WTO Law this year. The 20th anniversary edition of the moot competition was also held in Geneva last month. The SMU team, comprising third-year law undergraduates Laszlo Ho, Ivy Hu, Ethan Lee, and Rei Tan, placed second runners-up in both the regional qualifier and the international rounds in Geneva. They did so even without any coach or resources from previous teams. As is often the case for many of our moot teams, members of this team have volunteered to coach future WTO teams that SMU sends.

This year, 71 universities representing 39 WTO members and observers participated in regional rounds held virtually from February to May 2022. The top 25 teams from the 6 regional rounds (two European Rounds, All-Americas Round, South Asia, East Asia and Oceania, and Africa) qualified for the final round that took place in Geneva between 28 June and 2 July, and which was co-hosted by the WTO and the University of Geneva Faculty of Law.  

After four days of competition, SMU was one of the four teams that qualified for the semi-finals, the others being Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium), University of Zurich (Switzerland), and National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece). Eventually, the University of Zurich emerged as the winner of the competition, while Belgium’s Katholieke Universiteit Leuven was the runner-up.

The John H. Jackson Moot Court Competition is organised by the European Law Students' Association (ELSA), and WTO is a technical supporter of the competition. The competition is a simulated hearing under the rules of the WTO dispute settlement system involving exchanges of written submissions and adversarial hearings before panelists on international trade law issues. The case this year, “Alderaan — Measures concerning permanent magnet generators for windmills”, raised issues related to transnational subsidies and the interplay between trade liberalization and environmental protection.

“This year saw the gradual return of many moots to the in-person format, but our students showed no problems adapting. The Mandela result was extraordinary, considering the students had never mooted before, while the WTO result was also extraordinary because it was SMU’s debut and they received no coaching assistance,” said Associate Professor Chen Siyuan, who is Associate Dean for Student and Alumni Affairs and Director for International Moots, at the SMU Yong Pung How School of Law.

"We have done well in many moots this year, such as winning the Vis East, Frankfurt, and IHL competitions, in addition to reaching our 3rd Jessup final – so this has been a good year for all involved," he added.