The "Telders Moot Court" (TMC) offers students an insight into the practice of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. Students thus have the opportunity to try a fictitious case during simulated ICJ hearings.
The subject of this year’s competition, celebrating its 45th edition in 2022, is a fictitious case between the states of "Jonam" and "Maleen" (cf. this year’s Compromis). A special feature of this year’s competition is that there exists already a (fictitious) judgment on the merits and the subject matter is therefore the international law of reparations. The moot court participants thus address questions of responsibility vs. liability, causality, and various approaches to compensation in different areas of international law. Among other things, students have to discuss whether, and if so to what extent, the states they represent are entitled to compensation for violations of international environmental law, human rights or cultural property.
The final rounds of the TMC will take place from 06 to 11 June 2022, again online due to the ongoing Covid-19 situation. In preparation for these challenging final rounds, the Institute of International Law and International Relations hosted a friendly-practicing Pre-Moot Court for the second year in a row. In contrast to last year, the Pre-Moot Court could fortunately take place on site in Graz on 05.05.2022 and 06.05.2022. Besides the Karl-Franzens-University Graz (KFU), the Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf (HHU) as well as the Eötvös-Loránd-University Budapest (ELTE) participated in the event.
During the two-day event, the three teams competed against each other in a total of 6 court simulations. By means of well-founded legal argumentation, the students convinced the “judges”, renowned experts in international law, during the simulated court hearings. The following international law experts kindly provided themselves as Pre-Moot Court judges:
- Univ.-Prof. i.R. Dr. Wolfgang Benedek (KFU)
- Univ.-Prof. Dr. Diana zu Hohenlohe (Sigmund Freud University Vienna)
- Assoc.-Univ.-Prof. Dr. Gerd Oberleitner (KFU/Uni-ETC)
- Univ.-Prof. Dr. Paul Gragl (KFU)
- Dr. Lisa Maria Heschl, E.MA (KFU/Uni-ETC)
- Dr. Antal Berkes (University of Liverpool)
- Assistant Prof. Dr. Christian Pippan (KFU)
- Mag. Reinmar Nindler, LL.M. (Columbia) as well as
- Mag. Anna-Lena Hörzer, BA (KFU)
With spontaneous and detailed questions, the judges kept the students on their toes and prepared them in the best possible way for the questions in the final rounds. At a dinner at the Pizzeria ‘Galliano’, the participants had the opportunity to network internationally with their colleagues and to get to know the judges of the Pre-Moot personally.
The Institute of International Law would like to take this opportunity to thank Dean Christoph Bezemek and the Fürst Dietrichstein Foundation for their financial support of the Team Graz for its participation in the Telders Moot Court Competition. Special thanks also go to the team coaches Univ.-Prof. Dr. Charlotte Kreuter-Kirchhof and Anna-Lena Gawens (for the HHU team) as well as Assoc.-Univ.-Prof. Dr. Gábor Kajtár, LL.M. (Cantab) and Melinda Vittay (for the ELTE team).
Almut Winkelbauer, Magdalena Kieber and Lea Kreiner, BA are participating for the KFU in this year’s TMC competition. Since November 2021, they have been preparing intensively for the Moot Court and submitted their well-developed "Memorials" in March 2022. In the summer semester, they will now focus on the oral preparation and have already received valuable support from rhetoric trainer Monika Schmidt of the Institute of German Studies.
The coaches of the Graz team, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Erika de Wet, LL.M. (Harvard) and Mag. Christina Seewald, are extremely proud of the performance of the KFU students, both of the written "Memorials" and the oral pleadings during the Pre-Moot Court. The coaches are confident that the team Graz will do very well in the online final rounds and they are already looking forward to supporting the team in this next challenge!