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The student team from our law school was one of only four American teams to qualify for the oral rounds of the European Law Moot Court Competition 2004/05. The other three teams were from Harvard, NYU and Georgetown, all schools with highly-rated international law programs. Prof. Emmert, the Director of the Center for International and Comparative Law at IU School of Law - Indianapolis expressed his satisfaction with the performance of this year’s team and says he is looking forward to equally impressive results in the future. According to Emmert, “Our program is well on its way towards becoming one of the leading programs in international and comparative law.”

The students who traveled to Istanbul for the oral phase of the competition are Nurzat Myrsalieva (LL.M.), Christie Bodnar (J.D.), Kathleen White (J.D.), Robert Simpson (J.D.), Sabrina Salewski (LL.M.), and Edita Ubartaite (LL.M.) [see photo above].

The European Law Moot Court has been in operation since 1988. Each year, a complex case problem based on European Union law is sent out in late summer. Student teams from all over the world can register to participate and have to submit written briefs for both applicant and defendant by mid-November. On the basis of the quality of the written briefs, the best 48 teams - from way over 100 participating teams - are then invited to present their arguments in oral competition. Each year four universities host a regional oral competition for twelve teams during the month of February. These take place before distinguished panels of professors and practitioners. The winning team from each of the four regional competitions then moves on to the All European Final before the European Court of Justice in March. In Luxembourg at the ECJ, the students have to show their skills before the actual Justices of the European Court.

The regional host universities and cities change from year to year. This season, regionals were hosted by Universidad San Pablo - CEU (Madrid, Spain), Yeditepe University (Istanbul, Turkey), Goteborg University (Goteborg, Sweden), and New York University (New York). Because of a rule that no team can compete in its own country, all four qualifying American teams had to travel to Europe. Our students were invited to Istanbul and greatly enjoyed the travel opportunity in spite of being ruffled by an unusual snowstorm upon arrival [see photo of snow-covered Istanbul].

To date, there have never been more than four American law schools in the regionals and no American law school team has ever won the All European Finals. However, Georgetown won the Swedish regional last Saturday and will be a fierce competitor in the Luxembourg finals. Prof. Emmert says of Georgetown’s team, “We wish them all the best in March and look forward to friendly competition in 2005/06!”

More information on the European Law Moot Court can be obtained from the Center for International and Comparative Law and at http://www.elmc.org/index.htm.