The 2018 Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition that tests a law student’s comprehension of principles of International Humanitarian Law, Human Rights Law among others has announced Uganda Christian University (UCU) as the second best African university.
Jessup is the world’s largest moot court competition held annually in Washington DC, USA, with participants from over 645 law schools in 95 countries.
According to local press, UCU was the second best African team after University of Pretoria, which won all its four rounds becoming the best in Africa and the 5th globally.
The Church founded institution won three out of the four rounds and was the second best in Africa and 47th globally out of the 121 universities that participated.
UCU was represented by five law students; Ian K. Mwine, Isaac Mpirwe, Joan S. Mukisa, Consolate I. Namuyomba and Yasmin Ahed.
The top ranked team, according to a release from the institution, was Colombia Law School based in the United States.
It won all its four rounds and earned 3209 points. It was followed by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München from Germany, University of Toronto (Canada) and the Law Society of Ireland (Ireland) which teams won all their four rounds but only differed on actual points.
Reports show that UCU was the only Ugandan University that participated in the competition having been declared National Champion after defeating all local universities and law teaching institutions in the national rounds. The National rounds were hosted by Makerere University Law School earlier this year.
Dr Busingye Kabumba, the president of the International Law Association (ILA), Kampala branch, says the purpose of the moot court competition is to assess student counsel’s knowledge of the law and their art of legal courtroom language, skills and etiquette.
“It is an extension of a learning process but, most importantly, it’s to give the students the confidence on how the cases are presented before court,” Dr Kabumba says.
The competition was established 50 years ago and is run by the International Law Students Association.
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