GCILS Philip C Jessup Moot Court Team rank 5th in UK National Rounds
On 17–19 February, the Glasgow Centre for International Law and Security’s Philip C. Jessup International Moot Court Competition team competed in the UK Qualifying Rounds, held at the Ashworth Centre at Lincoln’s Inn, London. Having worked on the Jessup case since October 2022, the team pled before expert judges at the competition, made up of academics, arbitrators, and solicitors and barristers from across international legal practice.
The team performed exceptionally well. They ranked 5th in the overall competition, winning strong rounds against KCL, UCL, and Exeter, and ranked 4th in written memorial scores. Our first respondent Denise Mühlemann was ranked 6th out of all speakers in the competition, and our other speakers were between 1 and 5 points from reaching the Top 20.
The eventual winners of the competition were the University of Oxford, who will be joined by the Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn and King’s College London in representing the UK at the International Rounds in Washington DC. The University of Glasgow sends their best wishes to the teams for the next stage of the competition.
The 2022–23 GCILS Jessup team were:
Daniel Bittner (LLM, International Economic Law)
Calum McArthur (LLM, International Law & Security)
Denise Mühlemann (LLM, International Economic Law)
Suvd-Erdene Otgonbaatar (LLM, Erasmus Mundus Master in International Law of Global Security)
Michael Wynne (LLM, International Law & Security)
The team was coached by Dr David Scott, Postdoctoral Research Associate in International Law & Governance at the Glasgow Centre for International Law and Security and the Scottish Council on Global Affairs, and Eve-Anne Travers, trainee solicitor at Latta & Co.
The team were gratefully funded by GCILS and the School of Law’s International Mooting budget, without which the team would have been unable to compete at the UK Qualifying Rounds. In addition, the team held practice pleadings with a number of guest judges, who kindly offered their time and advice in advance of the competition. The team wishes to thank the following individuals for their support:
Paul McKell - Legal Director, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
Helen Carmichael - Senior Solicitor, Police Scotland and tutor in Civil Litigation for the Diploma in Professional Legal Practice, University of Glasgow
Alistair Sloan – Advocate, Optimum Advocates
Hannah Cosgrove - Senior Associate Solicitor, Latta & Co
Ruzena Benes – Solicitor, Latta & Co
Jack Smith – Solicitor, Latta & Co
Louise McErlean - Senior Solicitor, Burness Paull
Eilidh McSherry - Trainee Solicitor, Burness Paull
Diana Stoica - Trainee Solicitor, Burness Paull
Joel Conn – Partner, Mitchells Roberton and Legal Member on the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing and Property Chamber)
Jacob Tomnay - Procurator Fiscal Depute
Ross McLelland - Associate, Dentons
David Boag - Deputy Director for the Diploma in Professional Legal Practice, University of Glasgow
Joséphine Sangaré - Doctoral candidate, CREATe, University of Glasgow
Sofie-Marie Terrey - Doctoral candidate, FU Berlin and visiting researcher at the Glasgow Centre for International Law and Security, University of Glasgow
James Devaney - Senior Lecturer in International Law, University of Glasgow
Joseph Crampin - Lecturer in International Law, University of Glasgow
Jessica Schechinger - Lecturer in International Law, University of Glasgow
Andrea Varga - Lecturer in International Law, University of Glasgow
The team would also like to thank Latta & Co and Burness Paull for offering use of their offices for our practice pleadings with their solicitors.
GCILS is already looking forward to entering a team into next year’s competition, as part of our multi-year commitment to expand mooting in international law across the Centre. Any questions about mooting at GCILS should be directed to David.Scott@glasgow.ac.uk
