Edition 2022
This year's winner of the NILOS Moot Court Competition was the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece). Runner up was the University of Cyprus. The other teams in the competition were from Utrecht University (The Netherlands), Wuhan University (China), Hanoi Law University (Vietnam) and University of Indonesia. This year marked the first time that national rounds preceded the international competition, in countries where more than one university applied to the competition (China and Vietnam). It was the third edition of the NILOS Moot Court Competition. In light of the uncertainties surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Rounds of the 2022 NILOS Moot Court Competition took place entirely online. Read the full Report of the 2022 Moot Court Competition.
'The RV Vilhelmina case'
This year’s competition problem, entitled ‘The RV Vilhelmina case’, between the Republic of Freitas vs. the Kingdom of Selden, concerned, inter alia, legal issues on the laying of submarine cables, marine scientific research, establishment of outer limits of the continental shelf, port access in the time of a life-threatening pandemic and historic rights. The authors of the case were Dr. Nelson Coelho, postdoc at the Centre for Blue Governance (Aalborg University, Denmark) and Dr. Arron Honniball, Senior Research Fellow, Max Planck Foundation for International Peace and Rule of Law (Germany). Read the full case description. See also the Official Rules and Supplementary Rules for Online Sessions.
Other awards and winners
Besides the overall Winner and Runner up of the Moot Court Competition, the following categoric awards were granted:
- Best Applicant Memorial: National & Kapodistrian University of Athens
- Best Respondent Memorial: University of Cyprus
- Best oral pleadings for the Applicant: Wuhan University
- Best oral pleadings for the Respondent: Utrecht University
- Highest score overall: Utrecht University
- Best Oralist: Giuseppe Parisi from Utrecht University
Judges
The NILOS Moot Court Competition was judged by an enthusiastic group of volunteers (both academics and practitioners) with an affinity for law of the sea. Judges of the final round were: HE Judge Tomas Heider, Vice President of The International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea; Dr Nilufer Oral, Director of the Centre of International Law (National University of Singapore), Member of the United Nations International Law Commission; and Professor Alfred Soons, Emeritus Professor of Public International Law, Utrecht University. For an overview of Judges of the international preliminary round and the Committee of Appointed Judges, see the Report of the 2022 Moot Court Competition.
Partnership
The Organising Committee extends thanks to Jus Mundi, the official research partner of the Competition. As part of the partnership, all participating teams were granted free access to Jus Mundi Legal Research for the duration of the Competition. An additional one-year free access to Jus Mundi Legal Research was awarded as a Prize to the winner and runner-up team
Organising Committee of the 2022 competition
- Dr. Lan Nguyen, Assistant Professor at School of Law, Senior Research Associate at NILOS
- Dr. Nikolas Giannopoulos, Assistant Professor at School of Law, Senior Research Associate at NILOS
- Samantha Robb, LLM student in Public International Law, specialising in Oceans, Environment and Sustainability at Utrecht University
- Dr. Solène Guggisberg, Postdoctoral Researcher, Senior Research Associate at NILOS