Gujarat law varsity wins qualifying round of 59th Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court

Gujrat National Law University has won the Indian qualifying leg of the 59th Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court competition, jointly organized by Amity Law School and International Law Students Association (ILSA).

The runners-up trophy was lifted by the National Law Institute University, Bhopal. The other two teams selected to represent India in the finals of the competition to be conducted in April in Washington are the National Law School of India University, Bangalore and The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata.

The Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition is the oldest and largest international moot competition in the world. This year, 35 teams across India participated in India national qualifying rounds.

Addressing the gathering, Delhi High Court judge Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw called upon the law faculty members to teach students how to learn and advised students to enrol in programmes offered for free online. He also said that there is a need to revitalise law courses and add an element of human psychology into them since that is one area which is not been touched by Artificial Intelligence till now. He stressed that lawyers are often contacted by people, especially old and rich, seeking advice and counselling, which offers a fantastic role for lawyers to combine. He opined that some stream of finance should be added in the LL.B programme since there are lot of LL.Bs who are in managerial positions now- a days but they walked the path very slowly due to the lack of the required knowledge in finance.

Dr. Ashok K Chauhan, Founder President, Amity Group, said Indian lawyers cannot be superseded by their counterparts globally due to their incomparable legal acumen, debating skills and legal approach. He called upon participants to regularly read judgments of best judges to stay apprised with latest law insights and encouraged them to go for upcoming and interesting areas of law.

Retired. Supreme Court Justice S. J. Mukhopadhaya called on budding lawyers to be cool, friendly and composed before judges. The budding lawyers must also acquire the habit of assessing the mood of judges while presenting their cases.

Justice Prathibha M Singh, a former participant in Jessup during her college days, narrated that Jessup journey has become different after the advent of technology which is a great enabler for participants to easily access American Journal of International Law , preparatory videos and videos of the experience of the participants on the Internet, which help participants to improve their mooting skills.

Advising budding lawyers on how to win the Jessup Competition, she called upon them to be confident when they appear before a moot court and look into the eyes of the judges while presenting their points. She said there is no substitute for hard work and every participant just gets two to three months to prepare for Jessup.

During the ceremony, ten best oralists and five best memorials were also awarded.

-ANI