Moot Court in Changchun

I had the privilege of coaching the moot court team that represented the Nanjing University Law School at the English-speaking 8^th Red Cross International Law Moot. The competition was held at Jilin University in Changchun, China.

Teams take the roles of prosecutors and defense attorneys in arguing a hypothetical International Criminal Court (ICC) case. The ICC hears cases dealing with genocide and war crimes. The problem this year included charges concerning starvation of a civilian population, an attack on civilians, and environmental destruction.

Four law students represented the Nanjing Law School. Two of these were presenters who were required to argue for the prosecution in one round and the defense in another round. The judges were from various countries, one being a former barrister from a common law jurisdiction.

I was impressed with the high quality presentations given by Chinese students in a second language. I was proud of our team. We placed ninth out of thirty teams. In an early round we competed against the team that ultimately placed fourth and won that round.

Changchun is in the northeast part of China, and when we were there in December, it was very cold. We were told that Jilin University has 60,000 students and is one of the largest universities in China.

Marilyn was able to go on the trip and we had a wonderful time getting better acquainted with and learning from great students.

 When I say Changchun is a long way from Nanjing, I am not kidding. We left Nanjing late in the afternoon on a Thursday and arrived in Changchun about noon the next day. We traveled there by train in what is called a "soft sleeper" compartment, with two lower bunks and two upper bunks. We returned to Nanjing by plane.

 TEAM NANJING!

 This is a university classroom at Jilin University configured 

to serve as an courtroom for the competition.

The Nanjing presenters with the judges who judged the second round.

This is the room where the final rounds were held.

 All the while we were there the temperature was between 0 and 15 degrees. The snow was crunchy. We wore layers of clothing to stay warm and chose to not stay outside for long.

I cannot say enough about the quality of these students. They are intelligent, talented, diligent, and were also fun for Marilyn and me to be with.

A picture of the participants.