“What a journey”, probably the thought that crosses our minds the most in the aftermath of our Manfred Lachs Moot Court experience, well, next to key-tips like “embrace the questions”, “no stress” and “not too fast”, but we’ll get to that later. While this journey only started in earnest at the end of the first semester, when we were selected to represent the ULB in the international competition, we first became acquainted with the case during the first semester pleading course. Did we think we had already obtained a nice grasp of the case back then? Yes. Did we quickly realize how little we had thought of until that time? Yes as well.
But don’t let that scare you, no matter whether you have studied international law for a few years or have only seen the basics, knowledge of international law, while useful, is only part of the story. Rather, it’s endurance, the willingness to go on, to keep on studying, writing and researching, both alone and as a team, that is both your primary asset during a moot court as well as a skill you’ll learn to develop even further. Believe us when we say, you’ll never be idle for long during a moot court year.
On that account, the Manfred Lachs International Law Moot Court, like any other moot court competition has two parts: writing the memorials and performing the oral pleadings. The Lachs competition equally offers the additional challenge of framing its facts in a space law context, even if the many problems themselves are often of a more general nature, from questions on sources to solving problems via analogies. More practically, a moot court is an excellent exercise to make a transition from a more academic style of writing to a more demonstrative style fit for a later life at the bar or elsewhere. Continuer la lecture →