Sumy law students get into the finals of the prestigious ELSA Moot Court Competition
A team of law students from the Sumy National Agrarian University (SNAU) has reached the finals of the prestigious international ELSA Moot Court Competition, which took place in Strasbourg. Natalia Kletsova, Associate Professor of the Department of International Relations of SNAU, Candidate of Economic Sciences, told the Center for Civil Liberties about this.
Note that the competition is attended by law students from the best universities in the world. In the final part of the jubilee, the tenth Moot Court, 19 teams from around the world took part. This year’s competition was organized by the non-profit organization ELSA.
Our lawyers joined the team from the University of Oxford (England), speaking on the plaintiff’s side. In the end, it was the Oxford team that won the competition. The final results and points of other teams will be known in 3-4 months.
Getting to the finals, to the top 19 teams, is an achievement. For example, last year the team from Ukraine, took 43rd place among 120 teams and could not get to the final part of the competition. We will add, that representatives of SNAU became the only team from the post-Soviet space.
All questions and cases require a very high level of competence in European law, knowledge of ECtHR practice and the ability to support a legal/academic discussion in English.
“Our team was actively preparing arguments under Articles 2,3,8 and Article 1 of Protocol № 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights. However, each team had to consider the same situation from different angles: from the Claimant, and then from the Defendant,“- said Natalia Kletsova.
She also shared some other details. For example, in representing the Claimant, our lawyers focused on how the country is relinquishing its commitment to protecting the public from natural disasters. And also on how it does not provide proper legal regulation of emissions into the atmosphere, which leads to catastrophic consequences and threats.
The next day, speaking from the Defendant’s position, on the contrary, they stated that it was impossible to focus only on climate issues and ignore economic indicators. Also, on the fact that it is impossible to hold one country accountable for climate change because it is a complex issue.
A team consisting of students of International Law at the SNAU Faculty of Law Victoria Kirichenko, Daria Kravchenko, Polina Shishlevska went to Strasbourg to present the Ukrainian student legal community.
Team coaches:
1) Natalia Kletsova – Ph.D., Associate Professor of International Relations, SNAU, certified auditor, head coach and team creator, for the second year in a row coaches the team with SNAU.
2) Olga Kiryan – participant and coach of the winning team Moot Court-2018. Works as a Legal Consultant at the Independent Defense Anti Corruption Commission in Ukraine, part-time coach of our team for the second year in a row
3) Roman Tokaryk – Master of Laws from Oxford University. Participant and winner of Monroe Price Moot Court, Oxford (2018), Nelson Mandela Moot Court Competitions (UN, Switzerland 2017, 2018, 2019), Assistant Lawyer
The team also thanks Svetlana Zapari and Serhiy Petukhov for their advice and consultations.
