Another Great Year for Leiden Law School in the European Law Moot Court Competition
Leiden University has seen another successful season of the European Law Moot Court Competition come to an end.
In a tough regional final in Thessaloniki between 23 and 25 February 2018, comprising the College of Europe, Vienna University, University of Amsterdam, HEC Paris, University of Luxemburg, and the City University of London, just to mention as few, the team of Leiden Law school reached the final and became a very close runner-up against the College of Europe. Under the critical eyes of former president of the European Court of Justice, Vassilios Skouris, the team, which consisted Yasmeen Dufils and Alena Křížová from the Advanced European and International Business Law Masters programme in Leiden, and Jakub Jasiewicz and Amaury de Cooman from the European Law Masters programme, pleaded in an impressive manner. The final between Yasmeen Dufils and her opponent from the College of Europe was tight and of an exceptional quality. It must have been hard for the judges to determine a winner. The team was coached by Dr. Moritz Jesse of Leiden Law School.
A second team of Leiden Law School, coached by Daniel Carter and Barbora Budinska, managed to appear before the judges in another regional final taking place 1 until 3 April in Edinburgh. The team had a legendary arrival. It had to fight flight cancellations because of a once in a century snow-storm baptized the ‘beast from the east’. Arriving only at 4 o’clock in the morning after a 6h minibus-ride from Manchester through the snowstorm, the team had to plead the same day. Susana Dittrich, Smrithi Punnoose, Matilde Montanari, and Sebastiano Battaglino, all students of Leiden’s Advanced European and International Business Law Masters programme pleaded well but unfortunately did not qualify for the half-final or final in the Edinburgh regional final.
European Law Moot Court is the most prestigious moot court within the field of European Law, with around 80 universities taking part every year. Leiden Law School has a long time tradition of participating in this competition and won the awards for best team, best Advocate general, and best written pleading in the last 5 years. Teams of Leiden Law School qualify for the All European Final at the Court of Justice in Luxemburg regularly.
(Photo - After the Final: Leiden ELMC Team in Thessaloniki, (Yasmeen Dufils, Alena Křížová, Moritz Jesse, Amaury De Cooman, Jakub Jasiewicz)