March 5, 2012

Hopkins-Nanjing Center team advances to moot court final

A team of five Hopkins-Nanjing Center students has made it to the final round of the Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition that will take place from March 25 to 31 in Washington, D.C.

The team of master’s degree student Shirlene Yee and certificate students Sun Chuan, Wang Jingling, Stephen Levandoski and He Shen placed third overall out of 39 teams in the China National Rounds of the competition, which were held Feb. 22 to 26 at Beijing’s Renmin University. Professors Feng Chuan, Roda Mushkat and Thomas Simon coached the winning team. In addition, Yee placed first and Levandoski sixth in the individual Best Oralist portion of the competition.

The HNC team will be one of four representing China in the international finals.

This is only the second year that an HNC team has participated in the competition; that team placed sixth overall in last year’s China National Rounds.

Now in its 53rd year, the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition is the world’s largest moot court competition, with participants from more than 500 institutions, primarily law schools, in more than 80 countries. The competition is a simulation of a fictional dispute between countries before the International Court of Justice, the judicial organ of the United Nations. Teams prepare oral and written pleadings, arguing both the applicant and respondent positions of the case.