King's team in final of ELSA Moot Court Competition

The King’s team has qualified for the Final Oral Round of the 2011-2 ELSA Moot Court Competition on WTO law, which is to be held in Montpellier in May. The team, comprised of LLM students Benedikte Barsett, Mark Moussalli and Charlotte Vermeersch, finished third overall in the European Regional Round, held in Maastricht between 5 - 9 March 2012. The team was ranked third after the preliminary round where it defeated teams from Hungary and Germany. In the semi-final, King’s faced the top raking team, which ultimately won the Regional Round.  

The team is coached by Tiffany Kwok, Christy Burzio and Baskaran Balasingham (MPhil/PhD candidate at King’s). All three coaches represented King’s in previous editions of this competition. Professor Piet Eeckhout and Dr Federico Ortino, who teach the LLM module on WTO law at King’s, are the academic sponsors of the team.

Mr Balasingham commented: “It’s an honour to coach such an extremely talented and hard-working team. Their enthusiasm is inspirational and makes my coaching experience and the amount of extra hours worthwhile.” Ms Kwok added: “This is an incredible achievement, particularly since none of the team members had any previous mooting experience. I have high hopes for their continued success in the Final Oral Round.” Dr Ortino commented: “Given the countless hours spent on the memorials and the preparations for the Regional Round, the team fully deserved to qualify for the Final Oral Round. I am convinced they will even do better in Montpellier.”  

The ELSA Moot Court Competition on WTO law brings together teams from around the world to compete in a simulated panel hearing within the WTO dispute settlement system.

The King’s team would like to thank Hamed Fathinejad, Dr Isabelle Van Damme, Dr Joanna Gomula-Crawford, Isra Black, Stefan Mandelbaum, Emily Barrett Lydgate and Billy Melo Araujo for assisting the coaches in holding practice moots. Special thanks go to Ms Yordanka Bachvarova (LLM student) who assisted the team as researcher for the written submissions.  

front row (l-r): mooters Charlotte Vermeersch, Benedikte Barsett, Mark Moussalli
back row (l-r): coaches Baskaran Balasingham, Christy Burzio, Tiffany Kwok