CYIL vol. 12 (2021)

milan lipovský CYIL 12 (2021) MOOT COURTS ON ISSUES OF PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL LAW IN THE YEAR 2020/2021 Although the last academic year has been affected by the pandemic of Covid-19 to a large extent and personal meetings, including competitions, were thus impossible, the community of international lawyers, students, and enthusiasts overcame these troubles and organized many interesting competitions. They mostly took place in virtual form which in fact allowed participation of more teams than in the past because of the lower financial requirements. On the other hand, when teams from all around the world took part in competitions, it also meant that they were sometimes competing in less than pleasant hours of the day due to time differences. Thus, it might be said that the previous academic year brought many unexpected challenges and yet students managed to cope with them in very representative ways. As I am coach of the Charles University teams in the Philip C. Jessup Competition, the readers will surely understand that I start this short note with information on that competition in particular. The Jessup simulation of contentious proceedings in front of the International Court of Justice always focuses on current issues of public international law. In 2021, it was even more true than before because the topics were state responsibility for possible harm caused by pandemic-related economical restrictions, shooting down an aircraft, asylum of a rogue scientist, and automatic reservations to the declarations of accepting compulsory jurisdiction of the ICJ. The Charles University team consisted of oralists Jan Mais, Sára Mirabell Hátlová, Petra Rešlová, Enes Zaimović, and Antonín Čermák as a researcher. Unlike in previous years, this time the competition took place in fully virtual form and thus took a much longer time than usual because the organization of rounds between over 550 teams from all over the world was truly a gigantic task. The International Law Student’s Association (ILSA), judges, as well as administrators and technical staff deserve to be commended for how they managed the truly gargantuan task. Since the 1990s, no Czech team managed to advance to the advanced rounds in international/global rounds from the preliminary rounds where all the participating teams compete. Until this year when the Charles University team succeeded. They advanced among the elite group and to the elimination rounds. In combined results of the preliminary and advanced rounds (i.e., taking into account both the eliminated and advancing teams) the Charles University team was awarded the 79 th place out of over 550, and they won 6 out of 8 rounds they participated in. As such, they managed to list among the top-ranking world universities’ teams. The Charles University team also participated in the FDI Moot Court; a competition focused on foreign investment law. This year’s team consisted of Adriana Chochelová, Jakub Jandík, Tomáš Korený, Aneta Krausová, Martin Mašek, Šimon Pavlas, Jana Vidláková, and David Závada. Their coaches were Nikola Kurková Klímová and Katarína Kruľová together with Prof. Vladimír Balaš. This years’ topic of the competition involved dispute between foreign investor and fictitious state stemming from application of the “Soul Climate Agreement” leading to adoption of restrictive directive obliging states to stop operation of their coal-based power plants. In written rounds, the teamwas awarded the 6 th best submission for the host state and 7 th best submission for the investor. In oral rounds, the team managed to advance to the elimination rounds of the best 32 teams. In total, they were awarded 22 nd place (7 th best European university) out of more than 100 teams.

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