Makerere wins yearly Phillip C. Jessup Moot national competition

By Our Reporter

Over the weekend Makerere University Law School was busy as the yearly Phillip C. Jessup Moot National Moot rounds occurred from February 15-16 with various moot activities organised by President Patience Cheptoek Belinda of Makerere Moot Society.

The Makerere team emerged best overall in the competition. The winning team consisted of Isabella Magina, Rehemah Twiine, Aaron Paul Kaleeba, Jeffrey Kaddu Suuubi and Taremwa Kansiime Mukama who emerged best oralist and contributed to the great institution’s big win.

Every year, many universities from around the world participate in the competition and the winning university from each of these representative countries flies to Washington DC to compete in the international round. Farou Bay College from Sierra Leone and College of Juba from South Sudan were the winning universities from their home countries and attended the Makerere event.

The competition is a world representation of the court room and the teams tasked with an 8-16 page question that requires teams to represent an oral and written representation. The written presentation accounts for 60% and the oral accounts for 40%. The oral presentation is an actual base of the court room where judges question and the team present both the applicants and respondents side.

The question was about the case concerning Kayleff Yak and it was covering four broad aspects. The cultural and religious rites of indigenous people, international environmental law and the protection of species at the risk of extinction, responsibility of states of non state actors particularly multinational corporations and intellectual property law.

The students were required to consider all these four broad aspects in mind while answering the question.