University of Latvia regains the Philip C. Jessup Baltic Cup

This year the traveling cup was acquired by the team of the University of Latvia. The second prize went to the team from the University of Helsinki and soon after them with only one point in-between came the team from University of Luxembourg. Students from European Humanities University (a Belarussian university in Lithuania) and Orebro University (Sweden) also represented their countries meritoriously. In the final round of the moot the Latvian team, represented by Agita Sprūde and Zane Akmene (as the applicants) won over the Finnish team’s replicants, represented by Katariina Paakkanen and Marion Ross. The former participants of the moot court and other acclaimed lawyers now working in the field of international public law confronted this year’s participants as judges. The Representative in International Human Right’s Institutions of the Latvian Government Kristīne Līce, the Lecturer of international law in Riga Graduate School of Law Ieva Miļūna and assistant professor of international law in University of Tartu René Värk honoured the final rounds of this moot court competition with their presence. It must be noted that Ieva Miļūna has previously been a successful representative of Latvia both in Jessup and other international moot court competitions but René Värk has repeatedly been one of the judges in the international rounds of Jessup moot court competition in Washington, D.C. The decision of who deserves the title of winners in this year’s Jessup Baltic Cup was unanimous – all judges agreed that the best team is that of the University of Latvia. Ivars Stankevičs, also from the University of Latvia, was selected as the Best Oralist. In the memory of a promising young law student Jonas Thomsen Sekyere who won the Best Oralist Award in 2011 and died untimely last year, the prize will carry his name from now on. This year the Latvian team was represented by students of the Legal Science Masters Programme – Agita Sprūde, Zane Akermane, Dainis Pudelis and Ivars Stankevičs. All of them have already previously shown their skills and expertise in other national and international moot court competitions. The Latvian team owes their gratitude for the proper and worthy preparation to Māris Lejnieks, the lecturer of the Faculty of Law, who trained the team. Philip C. Jessup International Moot Court Competition is the largest and best-known international public law moot court competition in the world. It gathers more than 80 students from 500 universities from all over the world. After national and regional rounds teams obtain the right to participate in the international rounds of this moot that take place in Washington, D.C. In order for the teams to be able to prepare properly for the final rounds in Washington, it has become an annual tradition for the Baltic region countries to meet in the friendly regional competition, such as the Baltic Cup. This year marks the third time that Philip C. Jessup International Moot Court Competition Baltic Cup is organised by the Student Council of the Faculty of Law in the University of Latvia. The number of participants, variety of countries and geographically, the distance from the Baltic Sea, has increased over time, hence today the Baltic Cup bears its name in honour of the Baltic Sea region only thanks to a tradition and the place where the competition usually takes place. At the moment, the Baltic Cup teams are in the process of intensive preparation and training for the international rounds in Washington. The organizers render a special thanks to the judges who participated in the moot court voluntarily. Photo gallery of the competition