Successful participation in 2024 European Law Moot Court Competition
Four teams of students from the master's in European Law and the advanced master's in European and International Business Law (EIBL) programmes recently took part in this year's edition of the European Law Moot Court (ELMC). In the end, two teams qualified for the regional finals of the competition (oral rounds) held this year in Turin, Vienna, Sofia and Madrid.
Over the course of January and February, the two teams prepared intensively in biweekly training sessions, guided by their coaches and the many Europa Institute staff members who assumed the roles of judges. We would like to thank these colleagues for their commitment and rigorous questioning!
The LLM Team (Imre Andriko, Melkorka Kjartansdóttir, Max Schaetzel and Carolin Preissler) competed in the Turin Regional Finals. The EIBL Team (Jenk Ercin, Eylül Erdem and Agnès Rousseau) competed in the Vienna Regional Finals. While none of the teams managed to get through to the All-European Finals in Luxembourg, the students performed outstandingly and achieved remarkable results. Max Schaetzel, acting as Commission Agent for the LLM team, also qualified for the Turin semi-finals.
This Year’s ELMC case revolved around complex issues, on the CJEU’s jurisdiction within the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the potential role of domestic courts, as well as the application of the newly adopted Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR).
The ELMC is the most prestigious moot court for European law and Leiden Law School has a proud tradition of participating and winning prizes. Previous prizes won by students include Best Team (2013), Best Written Memorials (2015), Best Advocate General (2016) and Best Advocate General (2020). This year’s teams were coached by Vincent Delhomme, Elena Kukovica, Konstantinos Lamprinoudis and Gonul Nur Mingsar, and the EIBL and LLM Teams would like to thank the coaches for their constant support, assistance and coaching throughout this process.
In the Mooties’ own words:
Melkorka Kjartansdóttir:
Despite the countless coaching sessions for our pleadings and performance in the competition itself, nothing could have prepared us for how enriching experiencing the competition actually is! It's hard to believe that those six months of intense work and preparation come down to a 15-minute attempt to convince a panel of prestigious EU law experts to follow your sometimes very questionable reasoning. As well as all the in-depth knowledge you gain in the process, this experience is also fun and the judges enjoy it too! I'm definitely not doing to forget this experience in a hurry.
Max Schaetzel:
Honestly, experiencing the ELMC will stick with us for the rest of our lives. Writing the legal memorandum and preparing for the oral rounds was a challenging process and all came to fruition in the oral rounds in Turin. This was a highlight of all our LLMs, and we couldn't have done it without the tireless help of our coaches. In the spirit of the ELMC, it was an absolute pleasure to Moot, Meet, and Compete!