CYIL vol. 11 (2020)

CYIL 11 (2020) MOOT COURTS ON ISSUES OF INTERNATIONAL LAW IN THE YEAR 2019/2020 MOOT COURTS ON ISSUES OF INTERNATIONAL LAW IN THE YEAR 2019/2020 As every year, there were several international public and private international law moot courts that the Czech teams took part in during the previous academic year of 2019/2020. Though they were heavily influenced (as the whole society) by the restrictions imposed upon universities by the covid-related problems, we may still see the participation as success from the perspective of Czech academia. There was a particularly important event that took place within the premises of the Faculty of Law of the Charles University from March 5 till March 7. Though, already mentioned several times, world’s largest public international law focused competition – i.e. the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition – allows the participating teams to compete in national rounds (if there are at least two teams competing within the same jurisdiction) and the winning teams then compete in the international rounds in Washington D.C. Due to the various sizes of jurisdictions, many countries do not actually have national rounds and the only participating teams thus automatically advance to the international rounds. On the one hand, they are directly advancing, on the other they are deprived of the unique opportunity to polish their arguments in tough rounds, the experience of presenting their case, and responding to questions by the judges. Precisely due to that, the organizer, the International Law Students’ Association, established the so-called Jessup Friendly, a pre-moot for teams from single-team jurisdictions. The Jessup Friendly allows many teams to gain the above-mentioned experience and prepare for the tough competition in international rounds. The Jessup Friendly is a “travelling” event and has already taken place in Budapest, Nicosia, Vienna, and this year in Prague for the first time. The event was possible due to support from the Faculty of Law of the Charles University that provided the premises and also through the generous support from both the Faculty of Law and our stable and reliable partner the Prague office of White and Case. Both of these supporters deserve a huge thank you. The Charles University team also took part in the competition and the students (Miroslav Crha, Adriana Chochelová, Tomáš Krejčiřík, Petra Rešlová, and Nela Brynychová) focused their attention on several very interesting topics e.g. – jurisdiction of the ICJ, so-called killer robots, immunities from criminal jurisdiction, and tariffs. The case of the Helian Hyacinth thus provided very contemporaneous topics as Jessup does every year. Because the international rounds were, in the end, only limited to the evaluation of the written submissions (the memorials) due to the covid-19 pandemic, the Jessup Friendly was the only truly international event of Jessup this year. The Czech team succeeded to advance from the basic rounds of the Friendly to the quarterfinals and demonstrated its qualities. Since Jessup is planned as a completely virtual event for the next academic year, it will bring a new challenge to the competitors and I am looking forward to seeing students from around the world to successfully tackle this new task. Apart from Jessup, which focused on international law in its entirety, there are other moots that are usually focused on a particular topic. The Charles University teams have already proven their high qualities in the FDI moot, focusing on investment law and

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