Leiden Teams successful in European Law Moot Court Competition

Already for the second time in the history of the European Law Moot Court Competition (ELMC), a team from Leiden was awarded the “best written pleading” award. The ELMC is the largest and most prestigious moot court competition in the area of EU law. It is a bilingual competition (French/English) in which students top universities from Europe and the US are asked to solve a case of EU law.

Over the past few months students from the LL.M. European Law and the European and International Business Law Programme (LL.M. Adv.) have been working hard on their written memorials. This year questions were raised on the compatibility on the media law of Mandulinia, a fictitious Member State, with the free movement of services and the freedom of expression. A very topical subject, bearing in mind the recent controversy over a new media law in Hungary.

The competition consists of a written round, followed by four regional finals across Europe and an all-European final before the Court of Justice of the EU in Luxemburg.
On the basis of their written memorials, as many as two teams from the LL.M. Advanced programme were selected to represent Leiden in the oral part of the competition.

Lizl de Beer, Hauke Fuss and Raymond Pasiliao showed their pleading skills at the University of Zagreb, Croatia. At Dublin City University in Ireland, it was Chloé Binet, Sebastian Correa Ruiz and Clare Ruttledge who defended the university’s honour. The teams were coached by assistant professors Moritz Jesse and Jorrit Rijpma. Finally, also Professor Christa Tobler contributed to the competition, acting as a judge in the regional final in Heidelberg.

The Dublin team not only made it as far as the semi-finals of the regional round, but was on top of that awarded the prize for the best written pleading of the overall competition. This means that they are invited to attend the finals in Luxembourg, where real advocates-general and judges of the Court of Justice will hear the case.