Duke Team wins the 2005 Sidley — IIEL WTO Moot Court Competition in Washington D.C.

The Duke Team won the 2005 Sidley — IIEL WTO Moot Court Competition. The team also took home the prize for best written submission, and Greg Sergi was named runner-up for best oral argument. Duke and 12 other teams participated in the two-day tournament held at both the law firm of Sidley, Austin, Brown and Wood and the Georgetown Law Center. On February 25, in the final round, Duke won over NYU. Professor Pauwelyn was adviser to the team.  The case argued involved two fictitious countries, one developing and one developed, which were in dispute over certain measures taken by the developed country to ensure domestic employment.  These measures were in apparent violation of certain provisions of WTO agreements (GATT and GATs) regarding trade in products and services.  Team members were: Greg Sergi, Kevin Blume, Angie Heywood Bible, Zia Cromer, Nadia Goineau-Aram and Asa Garber. Congratulations!
For more information about the competition, click here.

Duke placed second in WTO Moot Court Competition in Washington DC

From left, Mariana Tavares, Fang Liu, Mayur Patel, Brian Sumner and other law schools' participants at the WTO Moot Court Competition in Washington, D.C.

Paul Brumpton (LLM '04, Great Britain), Mayur Patel (JD/LLM '04), Fang Liu (JD '05, China), Mariana Tavares (LLM '04, Portugal), Amir Farokhi (JD '04), and Brian Sumner (JD/MA '04) were selected through an open competition to represent Duke at the WTO Moot Court Competition in Washington DC on January 30th. The Duke team finished second overall after making a very strong showing in a close championship round against Georgetown University. Mayur Patel won an individual award for second best oralist at the competition. This year's problem focused on the role of national security and public international law in determining the applicability of GATT provisions. Eight law school teams, including Duke, Chicago, Columbia, George Washington, Georgetown, Harvard, Howard, and NYU were accepted as participants for the competition, which was jointly sponsored by Sidley Austin Brown & Wood and the Institute of International Economic Law at Georgetown University Law Center.

For further information on this event, please see the article on the Duke Law website.

Philip C. Jessup Moot Court Competition

The Jessup Moot Court Competition is the largest moot court competition in the US as well as in the world. It is also the most renowned international law moot court competition conducted in English.

In October 2002, a school-wide competition at the law school was held to determine who would represent Duke. From that competition, five oralists were selected: Jim Insco (JD/LLM ’03), Tim Kuhner (JD/LLM ’04), Mayur Pattel (JD/LLM ’04), James Pelletier (JD/LLM ’03), and Tim Pomarole (JD ’04).

At the regional competition, held in Memphis, Tennessee, the team placed 1st among twelve law schools that competed for one spot at the international rounds available to teams in the Southeastern United States. Besides winning the Regional Championship, the team placed 1st in the writing competition for its two briefs. On an individual basis, Jim Pelletier was chosen as the 2nd best oralist.

The team then proceeded to the world championship rounds held in Washington, DC. There, the top teams from the other US regional rounds compete not only with each other, but with the top teams from approximately 70 other countries. Many of these teams, like those from the US, had competed in regional rounds within their home countries to receive the right to compete in the international world championship rounds.

In DC, the team placed 33rd overall among approximately 80 of the world's top law schools. Its written briefs were ranked 12th out of the same pool. On an individual basis, Tim Kuhner was chosen as the 4th best oralist out of the roughly 300 individuals competing in the world championship rounds. He ranked second in the US.

Duke's Jessup Cup team was coached by Professor Michael Byers.