Nelson Mandela World Human Rights Moot Court Competition is best known as the “Olympic Games for Human Rights”. The Competition is held each summer at United Nations Office in Geneva. The World Moot is presented by the Centre for Human Rights, based at the University of Pretoria, with the support of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, in collaboration with the Regional Office for Southern Africa of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (ROSA).

As part of Fudan Law School’s educational programme to cultivate outstanding creative international legal talents, in accordance with “Fudan University Law School Regulation on Moot Court Competition”, Fudan Law School have decided to participate in the 10th Nelson Mandela World Human Rights Moot Court Competition.

Now Fudan Law School is pleased to invite applications for the position in Fudan’s team for the 10th Nelson Mandela World Human Rights Moot Court Competition which will be held at Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland in July 2018.

(Official Logo of the Competition by the Steering Committee)

The World Moot is a high-level international tournament which is open to undergraduate and master’s students across the world. The official language of the Competition is English. Students have to participate as team members of each university and submit memorials based on the hypothetical case, which are then assessed by a panel of human rights law experts. The competition is composed of two parts--the regional round and the global pre-final round. The regional round is held in 5 UN region groups including the African Group, the Asia-Pacific Group, the Eastern European Group, the Latin American and Caribbean Group, the Western European and Others Group. The best 5 teams from each UN region are then invited to participate in the pre-final and final rounds of the Competition at the headquarter of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, where they move on competing on basis of their written memorials and oral pleadings for the world championship.

The Competition is presided over by judges and scholars in the field of human rights law, including judges from United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, International Court of Justice, African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights, European Court of Human Rights, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, South Africa Constitutional Court and so on, senior experts and professors in human rights law are also invited as judges during regional and international rounds.

I. Schedule of the Competition

(1)  Establishment of Fudan University Team: Oct. 2017 (One team leader will be elected)

(2)  Moot Court Training: From Oct. 2017 to Jul. 2018, all Fudan team members are required to participate in an ad hoc Moot Court Training for each week, the training will be at least twice a week, and approximately two-three hours for each training. (The moot court training might be conducted by team members themselves or during public holidays the moot court training will be conducted via Skype)

(3)  Release of the hypothetical case to be argued: 1 January 2018

(4)  Official Clarification of Facts: 3 May 2018 (anticipated)

(5)  Submission of Memorials: 11 June 2018 (anticipated)

(6)  Announcement of the 25--35 qualifying teams: 19 June 2018 (anticipated)

(7)  Confirmation of travel details: 3 July 2018 (anticipated)

(8)  Pre-final and Final round: 16—23 July 2018 (anticipated)

(9)  Sponsorship: all training materials and travelling costs will be funded, if qualified for the Geneva round, welcome and farewell dinners and a double room hotel in Geneva will be provided by the Organizing Committee, other expanses should be borne by each team member.

II. Qualification of the Candidates

(1)  Candidates must be a registered full-degree student of Fudan University by the end of the competition.

(2)  No More than 4-5 students will be selected as Fudan team members, if the team is qualified for the Geneva round, two of the most qualified members will be selected as oralists, and other team members will be the outstanding faculty representatives or observers of Fudan University team.  All team members (oralists, faculty representatives or observers) shall have the same rights and duties for the whole competition.

(3)  Candidates should fully understand the spirits of Nelson Mandela and have sound legal knowledge, especially in the field of human rights law.

(4)  Candidates should demonstrate outstanding English proficiency and debating skills.(Proofs of English Language Proficiency Tests attached to you CV are strongly recommended if English is not your first language, this applies to both Chinese and international students)

(5)  Candidates must have sufficient free time for moot court training and human rights law research. (mandatory attendance for each training) If you ask for a leave, there must be written documents submitted to both the team leader and the coach in advance.

(6)  Candidates must obey the rules of moot court training and be committed to team work.

(7)  Team members sometimes might be dismissed when they break the rules of moot court training and moot court competition.

                 （Palais des Nations, United Nations Office in Geneva）

III. Written Submission Requirements

(1)     Step one (Deadline: 23:00 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 15th, 2017): Candidates must send a English CV to chinamootcourt@163.com. (No more than three pages). Email Subject: CV+****(Full Name) +****(Student No.) +World Moot. Late submission will not be considered.

(2)     Step two (Deadline: 23:00 p.m. Friday, Oct. 20th, 2017): Candidates should first read the decision of S.A.S v. France, Application no. 43835/11; ECHR 191 (2014) 01.07.2014 and then select one or two issues in the case, draft a memorandum for either the applicant or the respondent. The written memo should be 2-6 pages. (NB: Times New Roman, Single Spacing，12 font, adding page numbers to footer, adding your name and student number to header). Memorandum should be sent via email to chinamootcourt@163.com. Email Subject: Memo+****(Full Name) +****(Student No.) +World Moot. Late submission will not be considered.

IV. Oral Submission Requirements

For those who have fulfilled all the Written Submission Requirements in III, the Selection Committee will conduct interviews for all the Candidates.

(1)   Interview Time: 12:30 P.M. Sunday, Oct. 22th, 2017.

(2)   Interview  Venue: Class Room 409, Leo KoGuan law Building, Fudan University Law School, No. 2005, SongHu Road, Shanghai.

Candidates with late submission of written materials will not be allowed to participate in the oral interviews. All interviews will be conducted in English, the sequence of interviews of candidates will be determined by drawing lots.

When you come for the Interview, please do bring three hard copies of your CV and Memo. Each candidate will be given 2 minutes for self-introduction, and 10 minutes for their oral arguments. The judges can intervene at any time during a candidate’s oral arguments, the candidates should respond directly to the questions by the judges. The judges have the full discretion to decide when to end each interview.

Each candidate in the interview will be assessed carefully on a scale of 100 points, the written submission will count for 30% towards the Overall Score, and the oral submission will count for 70% towards the Overall Score.

Your Overall Score=Written submission*30%+ Oral submission *70%

Cheating and plagiarism is strictly prohibited during both written and oral submissions. Candidates with the highest scores (those scores must be above 60 out of 100) are to be selected as Fudan Team members. If no candidates are qualified, the Selection Committee will organize a second interview with fresh candidates from our university in Oct. 2017.

Interview results and scores of each candidate will be notified via email. There will be a two-day public notice period and students may complain during this period, once such public notice period has been completed, the team members are officially selected.

V. Competition Rules, Cases and Previous Records

If you are interested in the Nelson Mandela World Human Rights Moot Court Competition, please pay a visit to the official website at

http://www.chr.up.ac.za/index.php/projects/world-moot.html

In 2017, Fudan University team achieved great success during the 9th Nelson Mandela World Human Rights Moot Court Competition in Geneva and Fudan team was remarkably ranked No. 9 on the global level, No. 2 in Asia, and the best in China.

http://www.law.fudan.edu.cn/en/index/show/?m=1&d=990

Fudan Law School      

Fudan Selection Committee for the World Moot

E-mail: chinamootcourt@163.com

Sep. 28, 2017