MGIMO as First Russian Team in Philip Jessup Competition

27 April 2020

The results of the finals of the prestigious International Law Moot Court named after Philip C. Jessup have been revealed. One hundred and forty student teams from over one hundred countries of the world competed in the international law competition.

This year, the oral rounds of the contest could not be held in person in Washington due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, judges specialised in international law, among which representatives of the UN International Court of Justice, the UN International Law Commission, from leading foreign universities and international law firms collectively evaluated the memorandums of the different teams remotely.

The memorandums of the MGIMO student team entitled them to the fourth place globally and the first place among Russian teams participating in this international competition.

MGIMO was represented at the competition by the students Mikhail Abramov, Tamara Posadkova, Danil Shamelo, Alexandra Alyokhina and Alisa Gerasimenko. Anna Sidneva, Evgenia Neverova, Anastasia Sheindlina and Nikolay Gryzunov, graduates of the International Law School, coached the team. The training of the MGIMO team is managed by the First Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Moscow Journal of International Law, Associate Professor of the International Law School D.Ivanov.

Jessup is the world's largest moot court competition, with more than 2 000 participants from over 600 law schools in 100 countries and jurisdictions. This year, the topics of the competition included such international legal issues as the succession of states in respect to international treaties, the legitimacy of the development and use of lethal autonomous weapons, conflicts of jurisdiction of the UN International Court of Justice, dispute settlement mechanisms within the WTO as well as the immunity of foreign ministers.