PUBLISHED:February 04, 2015

3Ls Girouard and Shah win Susan J. Ferrell Intercultural Human Rights Moot Court Competition

Girouard '15 and Shah '15 Shah '15 and Girouard '15 with Judge Fausto Pocar

Chris Girouard '15 and Zharna Shah '15 made an impressive showing at the 10th Annual Susan J. Ferrell Intercultural Human Rights Moot Court Competition in Miami Gardens, Fla., which concluded Feb. 1.

In a competition involving 14 teams from eight universities, Girouard and Shah won first place as well as the Best Briefs Award. Shah and Girouard were also named third- and fourth-best speaker, respectively.

Because Duke Law was the top seed after four preliminary rounds, Girouard and Shah were able to choose the side they would argue during the final round against Florida International University; while many schools had sent two teams to argue each side of the problem, Girouard and Shah handled both.

Advocating on behalf of the applicant, Girouard and Shah addressed seven issues before the International Court of Justice concerning the court’s jurisdiction, the case’s admissibility, acts of aggression, the use of force, the right of a minority population to secede, human rights abuses, and whether the actions of third parties can be attributed to the parties before the court.

Judge Fausto Pocar, a current member and former president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, presided as chief justice over the final round of the competition. Pocar also is a member of the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

The Susan J. Ferrell Intercultural Human Rights Moot Court Competition, which is hosted by St. Thomas University School of Law, was created to increase awareness and respect of human dignity across cultures within the context of international law.