At the prestigious Rhodes University in Grahamstown, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, a coven of Moot enthusiasts sit, summoned by name from the various universities they arrived to participate in the world-famous 14-year-old ELSA moot competition.
The ELSA moot court competition is on World Trade Law. It is an international competition with five regional rounds; Africa, Europe, the Americas, the Pacific and Asia.
The top three teams from each of these makes it to the final round in Geneva, Switzerland in June. Moots are legal debates where students participate in a quasi court setting!
Normal rules of court proceedings apply. A problem is tabled and debated. It’s in short a mock court where a hypothetical case is discussed for usually academic purposes. Team Makerere; representing Uganda as a first time participant in the three year old Africa continental rounds yesterday advanced to the semi finals on Thursday.
Estella Felicity third year law student representing remarks that: “It’s apparently difficult to know the participating universities, for universities are given secret numbers by which they are identified. It’s quite handy for it minimise bias on the judges side!” The team is composed of the calm tongued Kato Roman Peter, the eloquent Atim Miriam Okello, the rather shrewd Ocen George and the impressively w
itty Estella Ategeka Felicity, all 3rd year law students.
The rules of engagement are simple; the top 4 teams make it to the semi-finals. Two teams make it to the finals and then a play-off for the 3rd place between the losing sides. The ELSA moot competition has a number of sponsors; World Trade Organisation, Trade Law Firms, World Trade Institute, United Nations, Economic Commission et al! We wish just the very best to the team.
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