Many of you have been involved in some capacity in the ELSA WTO Moot Court competition. It may have occurred to you that it would be fun to write up a case that would drive students completely nuts teach students a lot about WTO law. If so, here's your chance:
ELSA International invites proposals from prospective case authors to write the Moot Court Case for the 13th edition of the EMC2 Moot Court Competition on WTO Law.
The ELSA Moot Court Competition is a simulated hearing of a World Trade Organization dispute settlement panel. Teams of interested students from all over the world prepare written submissions for the complainant and the respondent of a fictitious case involving WTO law. After the written preliminary round, the teams have the opportunity to present oral submissions for both the complainant and the respondent before a WTO dispute settlement moot court panel composed of WTO and trade law experts. Further information about the EMC2 Moot Court Competition on WTO Law can be found on the ELSA website: http://www.elsamootcourt.org/
Case proposals will be evaluated by an Academic Board composed of WTO law academics, practitioners and staff of the WTO Secretariat. After acceptance of the case proposal by the Academic Board, the case author will work with the Academic Board to refine the issues presented in the proposal before the launch of the competition with the publication of the case in September 2014. In addition to the initial moot case, the case author is also required to prepare written clarifications addressing questions raised by students on the case (due in November 2014) as well as a bench memorandum that includes the best arguments and counter arguments to legal and factual issues arising in the dispute (due in December 2014). The bench memorandum is used by all moot court panelists in the regional and final round to mark and grade the participants' written and oral submissions. The case author would be invited to the WTO Secretariat in Geneva to judge the final oral round of the competition, along with distinguished WTO scholars and practitioners, in May 2015. Throughout this Moot Court Competition, the case author will work in close collaboration with experts of the WTO Secretariat, in particular Kaarlo Castren and Carlo Gamberale, Academic Co-Directors for the ELSA Moot competition.
The purpose of the EMC2 Moot Court Competition is to teach students about WTO law and the WTO dispute settlement system. The Moot Court Case should enable students to engage with a realistic trade dispute raising legal issues under the WTO covered agreements. The case proposal (between 1,000 and 2,000 words in length) should present a factual scenario and identify approximately three to four WTO legal issues (which may include procedural issues) that arise from the scenario. The Moot Court Case should provide a relatively balanced opportunity for legal arguments in favour of both the complainant and the respondent. Ideally, the Moot Court Case would address legal issues raised but not resolved in the jurisprudence to date and provide the opportunity to study and argue existing case law. The resolution of the legal issues should not depend on an evaluation of complex evidence or data. The proposals will be evaluated on the basis of the novelty of the issues raised, along with the opportunities provided by the case for students to engage with the existing WTO jurisprudence.
The 2014 Moot Court case, written by Professor Markus Krajewski of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, is available here: http://www.elsamootcourt.org/the-case
Case proposals should be made to [email protected] by 6th of July 2014. The case author would be notified on 15th of July 2014 and begin work with the Academic Board to develop the case over the summer of 2014, before the case is launched on 15th of September 2014.
