International Law Competition for Bachelor Students

On December 10, 2022, a competition on international law was held among 2nd year bachelor students. The competition was held as a simulation of the hearing of the case in the International Court of Justice according to the rules of the Ph. Jessup Competition. 

Winners of the student competition in international law

© Faculty of Law, HSE

The students showed a great interest: 26 teams consisting of four students sent memoranda for the applicant and the respondent. According to the results of the written round, the eight best teams passed to the oral stage.

The case between two fictional states, which was considered at the contest, touched on many topical issues of modern international law, including questions about how the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of states and sovereignty are able to protect the state from cyberoperations aimed at interfering with the referendum, as well as how freedom of speech and blocking of accounts in social networks correlate with each other.

The first place was taken by the applicant team: Arina Abubakirova, Anna Golubtsova, Alexander Ivchenko and Daria Sholomitskaya.

The second place was taken by the respondent team: Inessa Barinskaya, Dmitry Zimin, Veronika Kopeynik and Veronika Shevchuk.

© Faculty of Law, HSE

The third place was shared by two teams: Vladimir Vorontsov, Georgy Tsedrikov, Anton Sudarev, Stepan Rozhkov and Tatiana Zaitseva, Ekaterina Markova, Olesya Nikolenko and Kristina Yurkova.

© Faculty of Law, HSE

© Faculty of Law, HSE

The fourth place was shared by four teams: Ekaterina Yakimenko, Polina Ganyagina, Alexander Kovalevich, Elizabeth Frolova, Azalia Kayumova, Varvara Gracheva, Svetlana Konkina, Vadim Novikov, Lev Rumanov, Daria Tretyakova, Elizaveta Boyarkina, Anna Lebedeva, Nikita Timofeev, Artem Gorevoy, Danil Artyukhov, Danil Kuzikov.

The winning team shared their impressions of the contest:

"in fact, it's amazing when it turns out to unite not just the best friends in a team, but diligent and strong friends who are ready to work productively. Probably, in our case, the channel "revenue, mutual assistance" and the channel "cozy cooperation" worked, besides, we trusted and knew for sure that we would not let each other down in our common cause - everyone faithfully fulfilled their part, it turns out that we had such a kind of friendly productivity.

It was also nice that the judges noted our team spirit, it's great that it turns out to be visible from the outside.

We are happy to realize that our Moot court turned out the way we originally planned: we have been working at a very calm pace since September, so, a week and a half before the delivery of the memoranda, we called up, thought through the arguments that had previously been highlighted in our heads when searching for materials and discussing the plot, distributed parts of the memoranda within the team, then each painted his own. Of course, we trusted each other, worked efficiently, but we didn't even think that we would pass the full-time stage, so we were incredibly surprised that we passed one fourth: just at this moment we were able to charge each other with this energy and the strength of the fighting spirit, the desire to win worked!"

This competition was held for the second time thanks to the well-coordinated work of a large team, which included "judges" (staff members and PhD students of the School of International Law, graduates of the Master's program "International Trade Law and Dispute Resolution", experienced participants of international competitions), "bailiffs" (3rd year bachelor students).

The judges of the final round were the former judge of the ECtHR and Professor of the School of International Law Dmitry Ivanovich Dedov and Professors Daria Sergeevna Boklan and Vera Nikolaevna Rusinova. In the final comments, Daria Sergeevna admitted that she was proud of the students, Dmitry Ivanovich noted the highest level of bachelor's training and the importance of participating in mutcourts. Vera Nikolaevna pointed out that the final round could have been compared with the advanced rounds of the Jessup Competition.

Separately, it is worth noting the invariable coordinator of the competition – Professor Daria Sergeevna Boklan, whose enthusiasm and dedication made it possible to bring the wonderful idea of holding this competition to life!