Jessup win at national round
A team of five students from NUS Faculty of Law (NUS Law) made a clean sweep of all prizes at the Singapore National Round of the 2016 Phillip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition. They were crowned overall champions on 27 February at the Singapore Court of Appeal, after defeating Singapore Management University for the top honour. This is NUS Law’s fifth national win in the world’s largest and most prestigious moot competition.
The team, comprising Year 3 students Joshua Hiew and Victor Yap, and Year 4 students Hairul Hakkim, Mehaerun Simaa and Victor Leong, will represent Singapore at the International Rounds of the competition in Washington D.C. later this month.
“NUS Law has a rich tradition of mooting, including an amazing record at the Jessup that dates back to our famous team from the Class of 1982,” said Professor Simon Chesterman, Dean of NUS Law. He added that the Faculty was “tremendously proud” of the students’ dedication and win.
Moot topics this year included challenging issues of admissibility of evidence before the International Court of Justice; human rights law on terrorist detentions; developing international law norms on cyber-attacks; and the legality of mass surveillance.
Coaching the team to victory were NUS Law alumni Mr Chin Jincheng (Class of 2013), Mr Alvin Yap (Class of 2012), and NUS Law Associate Professor Lim Lei Theng, all of whom have represented the University in past Jessup competitions. Their experience proved valuable to the team who took home the Best Memorials prize in addition to winning the Overall Round. Joshua also clinched the coveted Best Oralist award.
“The Singapore National Round was a thrilling experience. The judges were very inquisitive, and we had to be on our toes throughout. Team spirit played a big part in helping us mentally prepare for the competition. We spent hundreds of hours together talking each other through a variety of possible questions, and that allowed us to foresee most of the judges’ concerns – there were still curveballs, but that’s part of the joy of mooting,” said Joshua.
See press release.
