King's team wins National Championship of Jessup International Law Moot

A team of students from The Dickson Poon School of Law has won the UK National Championship of the Philip C Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition. This is the fourth consecutive year that a team from King’s has won the prestigious title. The team will now represent the UK in the International Rounds of the Competition in Washington, DC to be held in April.  

Now in its 60th year, the Philip C Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition is the world's largest moot-court competition, with participants from over 680 law schools in more than 100 countries and jurisdictions. The Competition is a simulation of a fictional dispute between countries before the International Court of Justice, the United Nation’s principal judicial organ.  

The King's team, consisting of Tara Chand Lall (LLB, second year), Shavonne Teo (LLB, second year), Liam F. Holohan (LLB, second year), Irene Whelan Vita (LLB, final year) and Joel Chow Sherard (LLB Year Abroad Student), have been working on this year’s problem for several months. The problem touches on contentious and undecided issues in public international law - including the attribution of the conduct of a private entity to a State, environmental obligations relating to endangered species, and the appropriation of traditional knowledge. This year’s coach is King’s alumnus Caleb Kirton (LLB, 2017). 

In the oral phase of the National Rounds, which took place between 15-17 February 2019, the team won all four of their preliminary rounds, ranking first. They faced strong competition against teams from the Universities of Warwick (Quarter-Finals) and Oxford (Semi-Finals), emerging victorious and proceeding to the Grand Final. The team faced the University of Cambridge in the Final and were unanimously declared UK National Champions. 

The round was judged by a distinguished panel composed of Sir Michael Wood (Barrister at 20 Essex Street and the International Law Commission’s Special Rapporteur for Customary International Law), Mr Malcolm Forster (Consultant, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer), and Agnieszka Zarowna (Associate, White & Case LLP). 

King’s Joel Sherard Chow was named the Best Oralist in the Grand Final. The team also won the prize for the Best Applicant Memorial and had the Best Combined Applicant and Respondent Memorials.

The team and coach are grateful for the support that they have received in preparation for the Competition – including, particularly, to Andrew Carruth (Quadrant Chambers) and Peta-Louise Bagott (Carmelite Chambers). The team also sincerely thanks King’s academic staff for their support and advice - including, especially, Dr Philippa Webb.