Ukraine's law students participate in international moot court competition (03/02/03)

Ukraine's law students participate in international moot court competition

by Vasyl Pawlowsky
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

KYIV - For the ninth year now, students studying law at four of Ukraine's universities took part in the Ukrainian National Championships of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition held at Taras Shevchenko National University's Institute of International Relations.

Each year more than 1,600 law students from over 300 law schools participate in the competition worldwide, in which teams of law students representing different universities debate specific topics to test their court skills.

This year 18 Ukrainian students representing the Yaroslav the Wise National Law Academy in Kharkiv, the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Kyiv International University and the Institute of International Relations of Taras Shev-chenko National University participated in the championships on February 22-23.

After the final round on the morning of February 23, team members milled about the corridors, waiting impatiently while the judges deliberated the "Case Concerning the Women and Children of the Civil War," which addressed the legal consequences of systematic rape as a war crime and whether sexual slavery and corruption are unlawful under international law.

The stakes were pretty high, with the winner of the national competition gaining the right to compete in the world championships in Washington from March 31 to April 5, organized by the International Law Students Association.

Konstiantyn Likarchuk, the coach of the team from the Institute of International Relations (IIR), one of the two team finalists, told The Weekly that he had never seen such a close final round at the national championships. Mr. Likarchuk had participated in earlier Jessup Competitions held in 1998-2000.

"This is more like the world championship round. The two teams are so closely matched and this is clearly a positive development in Ukraine. Even last year those who came out on top were clearly the stronger team. Now all we can do is wait for the result of the judges," Mr. Likarchuk said, while many members of his team nervously shifted their weight from one foot to the other

Mr. Likarchuk added wryly, "If I were one of the judges, I would have a really difficult time in picking one team over the other."

"It's the waiting for the results that is really hard," said Yuriy Rylach, one of the IIR team members, adding, "Whether we win or lose, we will all be together at the reception together afterwards, and we will go away with more experience."

Teams were judged not only on their English-language oratory skills, but also on their written memoranda submitted to the national administrator, who then distributed these to the volunteer judges of the competition.

"The judges were key in conducting the Jessup," said Oleh Riabokon, managing partner of the Kyiv-based law firm Magister & Partners, who administered this year's national competition.

"As you know, there is a very bad case of the flu going around, and a few of the judges called us and said they couldn't make it. If we hadn't the number of great volunteers from Kyiv's legal community, we may have been hard-pressed to judge all the preliminary rounds," he said gratefully.

"I'm totally relaxed today," said Oleksander Svyryd, who traveled from Kharkiv with his teammate Halyna Hrytsenko, the only two from their four-member team from Yaroslav the Wise National Law Academy of Ukraine, who were able to make it to Kyiv. "Yesterday, morning on my way to the competition I was supposed to meet with Halyna [at the subway station] ... Let's just say there was a little miscommunication," he laughed and continued, "I was standing on the platform while she was waiting outside. This didn't contribute very positively to our stress levels."

After traveling from Kharkiv to Kyiv, had the duo arrived late for their preliminary round they could have been disqualified. However, for some of the competitors, particularly Mr. Svyryd, winning is not everything.

"Even though our team didn't make the final round, that is not the most important thing about competitions like this one," said Mr. Svyryd with a smile. "Competitions give us the opportunity to meet people with different ideas, and not only test our oral and written skills, but it is great to meet others. That is what I find to be one of the most important aspects of the Jessup Competition. It was great that we were able to come to Kyiv to represent our university, and when I go back to Kharkiv I'm going to encourage students in their earlier years to get involved."

After about an hour of the judges' deliberation the wait was finally over, and the competition organizers called on everyone to return to the courtroom. As the bailiff called for all to rise, the anxiety and nervousness was apparent on the faces of the team members from Kyiv International University and the Institute of International Relations, the two finalists. After three judges of the final round, David Rodemel of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, Charles Caruso of American Bar Association's Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative, and Richard Shepard of the Eurasia Foundation took their seats, each took a few minutes to praise and encourage the students for their excellent command of not only the difficulty of the topic in question, but also of the English language.

When the national administrator announced that the team from Kyiv International University had won the competition, there was jubilation on the students' faces. Members of the team from the IIR, who had led going into the final round, were clearly disappointed. Regardless of the outcome, all participants received plaques for participation while the U.S. Embassy, the International Financial Corp. and the Dinteral Book Co. provided dictionaries as prizes for the winners and books as gifts for the participants.

After it was all over, the participants, their coaches and faculty advisors attended a reception where much of the seriousness was put aside, toasts were made and friendships sealed. Mr. Svyryd from Kharkiv was busy taking pictures and talking to his peers. After all, he did mention that one of the important aspects of the Jessup, in his opinion, was meeting people.

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