AUS students beat Stanford team in advanced rounds at Moot Court Competition

A team from American University of Sharjah (AUS) tookpart in the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition (Jessup)national rounds for the seventh time in a row, in Washington, DC, from March 27to April 2, 2016. According to the final results, AUS ranked number 5 out ofthe approximately 600 participating teams worldwide and 116 teams that competedin Washington, DC. In addition, all three AUS oralists made it to the Top 100Individual Oralists and the team's memorial (written pleadings) was among theTop 30, making AUS the first institution in theArab world to ever hold this position, topping prominent universitiesincluding Kings College London and Stanford Law School. 

The team of five students were selected to participate in the 57th year of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, the world's largest moot court competition, with participants from over 700 law schools from all over the world. The competition has been described as the most prestigious moot court competition in the world by a large number of organizations and universities internationally, and is organized by the International Law Students Association.

Thousands of participating students from around the world worked all year long on the season's Jessup Problem, which focused on the legality of cyber-surveillance and cyber-attacks under international law.

This year, the highlight of the AUS team's participation was competing against Stanford Law School, the third-ranked law school in the US, and beating its team, as well as reaching the highest score of all participating teams in the MENA region.

The AUS team was composed of undergraduate international studies students, who, along with their bachelor of arts coursework, have developed an interest in international law and legal advocacy. Team members are Abdul-Dayem, Razan Breiwish, Wajid Zakir, Hassan Salman and Menna Al-Khalil.

Menna Khaled Al-Khalil, Captain of the Moot Court team 2015-2016 and an international studies senior student, expressed her pride at their ranking and said, "This year and for the very first time, AUS and the UAE made Jessup history! Not only did the AUS team qualify to the advanced rounds along with prominent law universities, including Stanford Law School and Columbia Law School, but the team also won all preliminary rounds, and was among the top eight teams in the world, being the first Arab country to ever hold this position."

"The intense working nature of the program helped me gain skills in advocacy and legal research, as well as enhance my attention to detail, teamwork skills, communication, and the ability to work for long hours. I would like to thank Dr. Kevin W. Gray and AUS for giving me this great opportunity," she added.

Team member Wajid Zakir said, "The Jessup Competition brings together the best law schools in the world to compete in a realm of law that is of significance in relation to recent global events. AUS has given us this amazing opportunity to participate in a competition of such high caliber. The only reason we were able to beat the likes of Stanford Law School was because of Dr. Kevin Gray's dedication in coaching us to a standard that gave us the knowledge and confidence to do well in the competition."