The competition celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court, bringing together several teams from different countries to consider a novel case concerning the law of genocide. In this competition report, Prekshi and Page share their experiences of the competition and what their victory meant to them.
By Prekshi Gulia and Page Nyame-Satterthwaite
Prior to arriving in India, we prepared memorials (written booklets of our submissions). These were 7000-word documents that outlined the main case law and arguments that our team intended to reply upon for our oral submissions. Although not able to participate in the competition itself in Pune, Ādam Zaman played an integral role as researcher for the prosecution submission.
We received the 40-page competition problem in January and immediately started research. Our research involved learning about International Criminal Law and rules of evidence in the International Criminal Court to respond to the facts of the question. It was particularly interesting to apply our knowledge of law from other areas of our studies (such as domestic criminal and human rights law) to the Rome Statute.
On arrival in India, we submitted bound copies of our memorials and received copies of other teams’ memorials to prepare for our first round. Each round was run like a mock trial, with a judging panel, witnesses to cross-examine and other teams in the roles of prosecution, defence or victims’ counsel.
After the first and second days of the competition we proceeded through the rounds until we reached the Finals’ day. This meant lots of late nights and early mornings as rounds involved up to 4 or 5 hours of speaking each and several rounds took place per day back to back.
At the end of finals day, in the prize ceremony we won as Best International Team. The ceremony was an inspiring occasion (even reported in the national news!). We were presented with our trophy by Honourable Justice Mohan Pieris (Former Chief Justice Supreme Court of Sri Lanka), Honourable Justice Deepak Gupta (Supreme Court of India Judge), Mr Nirankan Reddy (Senior Advocate in the High Court of Telangana) and Honourable Dr Justice Shalini Phansalkar Joshi (Former Judge in the High Court of Bombay).
The International Criminal Trial Advocacy Moot competition was an interesting and inspiring experience. We are very grateful to the hosting university in India, the Symbiosis Law School, and the University of Bristol Law School for their support that undoubtedly helped to secure our winning trophy!