Students of NALSAR University of Law have yet again proved their mettle by winning two prestigious international competitions this year.
The team comprising Sourav Roy, Kunal Singh and Dhruv Bhattacharya won the world rounds of the Monroe E. Price International Media Law Moot Court Competition conducted by Oxford University, U.K.
The victorious team from NALSAR beat the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia. In course of the competition, the team from NALSAR beat various universities including the City University, London and University of Belgrade, Serbia who had done well in the previous years.
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Competition
The event saw a very stiff competition among teams from around the world. Various qualifying rounds were held across the world, including South - Asia and the Middle - East and teams from 20 different jurisdictions, spread across all continents, ultimately earned a place to compete at the World Rounds in Oxford.
The main moot problem was based on media freedom and scope of media rights. The finals were judged by the likes of Timothy Endicott, Dean of Faculty of Law at Oxford University, Justice Kalaydjieva of the European Court of Human Rights, Mr. Jonathan Donnellan (former lead news - room lawyer at CNN) amongst others.
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“Mooting is an important activity and essential for the legal curriculum and winning an international moot is indeed a proud achievement for the NALSAR,” said the Vice - Chancellor Faizan Mustafa. A three-member team from NALSAR also tasted success at the world's largest and arguably most prestigious moot court competition, the 19 annual Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot Court Competition. The moot was held in Vienna, Austria from March 31 to April 5.
The team comprised fourth year B.A. L.L.B. (Hons) course students Ishita Bhardwaj, Ridhi Kabra and Jagdish John Menezes. They were coached by Mr. Manish Aggarwal, Associate at Allen and Overy LLP, also an alumnus of NALSAR. They beat 287 teams from over 80 countries in this competition referred to as the ‘Olympics of International Trade Law'. In the finals, the team argued for the Respondent in the dispute, which concerned international arbitration and sale of goods. By then, they had faced opponents from Poland, Brazil, Germany, Indonesia, Singapore, United States, Italy and Denmark. They then fended off a tough challenge from the 12 - member team of University College of London.
“NALSAR's win at this prestigious competition is only the second win by an Indian team in the nineteen year history of the moot, generally dominated by American, British and German teams,” said John Menezes, the winning team member.