Telders Moot Court

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What is the Telders International Law Moot Court?
Every year since 1977 students from all over Europe have come to The Hague to participate in this completion named in honour of Professor Benjamin Marius Telders.
The Telders Moot Court is a student competition with around 25 teams from as many European countries. The international rounds held in the Peace Palace in The Hague, thereby making the Competition’s prestige as the most prestigious and important international Moot Court Competition in Europe.
Each year student teams are presented with a case involving a fictitious dispute between two States. This dispute is put before the United Nations’ most important legal organ, the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The proceedings will simulated as if a real case in front of the International Court of Justice. Experts in international law will score the performance of the students. It is not unusual that ICJ-Judges will make their appearance at the competition.
It is up to the teams, composed of four students each, to defend two States to the best of their abilities. Each team has to represent the States substantively by writing memorials for the applicant and respondent sides. This is a special attraction of the competition but also a significant challenge for every team. In the Moot Court the teams will present pleadings for their countries. The students will compete with one another and improve their presentation and debate skills.
The entire competition is held in English.

Written Memorial (October – January)
In October the case will be published. The team has to submit memorials for the applicants and for the respondents. After intensive research by the team, memorials will be composed with 25 pages of argumentation. This part of the memorials will be the base for further work.

Oral pleadings (January – April)
After handing in the memorials the team will prepare the pleadings. The team has to learn how to fight for their arguments in front of a court. If another Swiss University applies to the competition a national preselection will be held in February. The winning team will not only represent their University but also Switzerland in the semi-final at the Peace Palace.

Interested students cannot enrol for the course in the bidding system but have to apply with a letter of motivation, CV and other documents by July 31 to christa.stuenzi@student.unisg.ch.