Sydney Law School 2015 Jessup Moot World Champions

A team of five University of Sydney law students has won the Jessup International Law Moot Court competition, following up their recent success winning the Australian National Rounds of the competition in the High Court in February.

The team defeated Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in the Grand Final moot held in Washington DC. On the bench were two judges of the International Court of Justice: His Excellency Sir Kenneth Keith (presiding) and Her Excellency Joan Donoghue and distinguished international law academic and former State Department advisor Professor Harold Koh.

The team comprised:

• Sarah Bradbury
• Nathan Hauser
• Sam Murray
• Angus Nicholas
• Alice Zhou.

"This is a tremendous result for our talented students, and is also testament to the strength of our team of international lawyers at the Sydney Law School who have supported the Jessup since the 1990s," said the Dean, Professor Joellen Riley.

The University of Sydney has previously won the Jessup Cup in 1996, 2007 and 2011. Sydney Law School is now the world's equal best performing law school in the Jessup, having won the Jessup Cup on four occasions since the competition was opened to international teams in 1968.

Widely recognised as the world's most prestigious student legal advocacy competition, the Jessup Moot gives competitors the opportunity to argue a case before the International Court of Justice. Working as a team, they represent fictional States in a hypothetical but topical case of international law. In 2015 there were over 550 law schools participating in the Jessup from more than 80 countries.

As well as the group taking out the Grand Final moot, team member Alice Zhou was named best advocate in the final, and Sarah Bradbury was named best advocate in the overall competition in Washington. Angus Nicholas was named as 7th best oralist in the overall competition.

The team was coached by alumnus, Rob Pietriche BEc (2012) LLB (Hons) (2014).

Professor Tim Stephens, the team's Faculty Advisor, congratulated the team: "This is an exceptional performance by our students who've shown enormous dedication since November 2014 when they began work on the moot problem.

"The Sydney Law School extends our sincere thanks to all those who supported the team, especially the practice moot judges from Faculty and from the judiciary and wider legal profession in Sydney.

"We extend very special thanks and acknowledgement for the financial support provided to the students from the NSW Bar Association, Gilbert + Tobin, and the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law."