Open University wins National Moot Court competition
September 15, 2010 02:03 pm
A three member team of undergraduates from the Department of Legal Studies of the Open University won this year’s Henry Dunant Memorial National Moot Court competition organised by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Faculty of Law, University of Colombo, held at the Senate Hall of the University on 9th September, 2010.
The Open University team debated with a three member team of undergraduates from the
Faculty of Law, University of Colombo, who were the runners up in a mock trial lasting two hours. The Panel of Judges were S.S Wijeratne, Chairman of the Legal Aid Commission of Sri Lanka, Anura Maddegoda, former Prosecuting Attorney of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and Attorney- at- Law Thavarajah.
“The Moot Court was a new and enlightening experience for us as International Humanitarian Law (IHL) is not included as a part of our curriculum in the University”, said Niroshini Rajapaksa, a member of the Open University team that also included Medha De Alwis and Damindri Alahakoon, all second and third year students studying for a Bachelor of Laws degree. “We are happy we won and would like to thank our coach and teaching staff for their support and encouragement’.
The main objective of the Henry Dunant Memorial Moot Court competition is to develop an increased awareness and interest in IHL in academic institutions in South Asia. The
Competition gives law students an opportunity to enhance their knowledge of the subject and develop their advocacy skills before putting it into practice outside their classroom.
The ICRC and the Faculty of Law have jointly organised the National Henry Dunant Memorial Moot Court competition in English and the vernacular languages since 2005. After each national competition in English, the winning team was sponsored to take part in a regional competition organised by the ICRC in New Delhi where they competed with law students from other South Asian countries. This year too the ICRC will sponsor the winning team to represent Sri Lanka at the Regional Moot Court competition in New Delhi from 22 to 24 October, 2010.
The internationally recognised mandate of the ICRC includes the promotion and development of IHL including in times of peace. In fulfillment of this responsibility, the ICRC has been supporting higher education institutions in Sri Lanka including the Faculty of Law to promote IHL for more than ten years. This includes developing IHL curricular, conducting university teacher training programmes in IHL, providing resource materials and organising events such as the Henry Dunant Memorial Moot Court competition.
