CYIL vol. 8 (2017)

CYIL 8 ȍ2017Ȏ MOOT COURTS ON ISSUES OF PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL LAW IN THE YEAR 2016/2017 MOOT COURTS ON ISSUES OF PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL LAW IN THE YEAR 2016/2017 As has already become traditional, I would like to use this opportunity to thank the students of the Faculty of Law of Charles University that participated in various moot courts in the academic year of 2016/2017 and so represented themselves, the Faculty of Law and the Czech Republic. Since moot courts are a wonderful way of exercising one’s mooting and advocacy skills, the participation brings excellent experience to both the Faculty and the students. There are of course many moot courts, focused on various legal fields, I will limit myself though only to those directed at enhancing a student’s knowledge of public international law. As in previous years, I have been coaching the Charles University team in the Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, the largest international law moot court in the world. This year, the topics were the use of shared (across border) natural resources – meaning water, thus a very current topic even in the Czech Republic; protection of cultural and natural heritage – unfortunately a very current topic due to the wave of barbarism against cultural property around the world; and compensation for refugee flows – even this topic brought up many questions applicable particularly in Africa, Asia and Europe. The Charles University team consisted of 5 members: Nela Černotová, Nikola Klímová, Jan Kotara, Petra Sýkorová and Barbara Šinková. The Czech national rounds have traditionally been organized by the Center for Human Rights and Democratization in Brno and took place within the premises of the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic on February 24, 2017. The Charles University team repeated last year’s success and won the national rounds. The international rounds took place in Washington D.C., where the team competed with teams from Slovenia, Hong Kong, the USA and Finland. Despite the big competition, the results of the Czech national teams were increasingly good and I would like to congratulate the teams for that. A big thank you goes to the White and Case Prague office, which has sponsored the Czech national rounds and the participation of the winning team in D.C. White and Case is also the world sponsor of the Jessup competition and as such plays a key role in the education of successful new lawyers both in the Czech Republic and worldwide. The Charles University Faculty of Law students have also participated in the 9 th Nelson Mandela World Human Rights Moot Court Competition and the team (Tomáš Opat and Kateřina Novotová, coach Dr. Alla Tymofeyeva) have qualified for the pre-final rounds and thus belong to a group of 37 teams that competed in the Palais des Nations in Geneva in July 2017. Each UN region may send 5-13 teams and the Czech team belongs to the top 5 from the East European Group. Moreover, the Czech team won the third place in competition of Best memorials. Apart from the competition, the teams will also be given an inside look into the work of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Human Rights Council.

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