A Review of the 2022/23 International Moots Season
This is the ninth1The previous reports can be found in “A review of the 2021/22 international moots season”, Law Gazette, September 2022. annual review of Singapore’s performance in international moot court competitions.2Mediation or negotiation competitions are excluded from this recap, though our schools continue to excel in such competitions. In 2023 for instance, Singapore teams won the CDRC Vienna and HSF-Delhi competitions. The preceding season (2021/22) had set a high bar, considering that Singapore law schools took the top two spots in the NICA Law School Rankings.3https://nica.team/news/nica-team-law-school-ranking-has-been-anounced/. The NICA rankings are based on how law schools throughout the world perform in various international moots, with points weighted according to the scale of the competition. With six championships (including two Grand Slams)4Grand Slams are class-leading competitions that attract a substantial number of teams and are perceived to have a particular prestige not just due to scale and number of teams participating but also the quality of the organisation, participants, judging, and surrounding events. They currently comprise the Jessup, Vis, Vis East, Price, International Criminal Court, and Frankfurt moots: see The International Moot Court Compendium: https://www.internationalmoots.org. as well as a third championship final appearance in the Jessup, SMU took top spot in the NICA rankings for the second time in its history.
In this light, the results tabulated below for the 2022/23 season would appear less impressive, despite the fact that law schools had podium finishes in almost every moot they participated in. Moreover, an unusually high number of prizes for best written and best oral submissions were won, suggesting that some of the knockout losses were down to the finest of margins. Notable results this season include NUS reaching Singapore’s first ever championship final appearance in the Jackson WTO Moot in Geneva, SMU winning the inaugural Unjust Enrichment Moot in Brisbane, and SUSS achieving a podium finish in Singapore’s first appearance in the Sports Law Arbitration Moot in Lausanne. In a trend that ought to be broken soon, Singapore continued to reach fairly advanced stages of the biggest competitions, but fell short. May the next season produce better results.
| Results of all notable international moot competitions in 2022/23 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Moot edition | Venue | No of teams | Singapore results/rank |
| 3rd Computational Law | Canberra (online) | ~ 20 | SMU: 1st-runner-up NUS: NA |
| 15th Foreign Direct Investment Arbitration | London | ~ 50 | SMU: 8th NUS: P |
| 17th LAWASIA Arbitration | Sydney | ~ 25 | SMU: 1st-runner-up NUS: NA |
| 27th Stetson International Environmental Law | Gulfport | ~ 60 | SMU: 2nd-runner-up (SEA); QF (international) NUS: 1st-runner-up (SEA); QF (international) |
| 16th Price | Oxford (online) | ~ 90 | SMU: Champions (A/P); QF (international) NUS: P |
| 7th Fletcher International Insolvency | Tokyo (online) | ~ 30 | SMU: 2nd-runner-up NUS: NA |
| 21st Jackson WTO | Geneva | ~ 80 | SMU: Champions (East Asia and Oceania); 2nd-runner-up (international) NUS: 1st-runner-up (East Asia and Oceania); 1st-runner-up (international) |
| 21st Red Cross International Humanitarian Law Moot | Hong Kong | ~ 60 | SMU: 2nd-runner-up NUS: NA |
| 21st Oxford Intellectual Property | Oxford | ~ 60 | SMU: P NUS: QF |
| 20th Vis East Arbitration | Hong Kong | ~ 150 | SMU: QF NUS: R32 |
| 30th Vis Arbitration | Vienna | ~ 350 | SMU: 3rd NUS: R64 |
| 64th Jessup International Law | Washington DC | ~ 700 | SMU: 2nd-runner-up NUS: R32 |
| 11th PAX Conflict of Laws | Brussels | ~ 40 | SMU: 2nd-runner-up NUS: NA |
| 14th Sarin Air | Leiden | ~ 40 | SMU: 2nd-runner-up NUS: NA |
| 15th International Criminal Court | Hague | ~ 80 | SMU: QF NUS: SF |
| 32nd Lachs Space Law | Baku | ~ 80 | SMU: 2nd-runner-up (Asia) NUS: NA |
| 15th Frankfurt Investment Arbitration | Frankfurt | ~ 50 | SMU: R16 NUS: 2nd-runner-up |
| 23rd International Maritime Law Arbitration | Swansea | ~ 20 | SMU: 2nd-runner-up NUS: NA |
| 15th Mandela Human Rights | Geneva | ~ 20 | SMU: NA NUS: R16 |
| 9th Nuremberg | Nuremberg | ~ 130 | SMU: QF NUS: R16 |
| 24th Asia Cup | Tokyo | ~ 40 | SMU: 2nd-runner-up NUS: NA |
| 1st Unjust Enrichment | Queensland | ~ 10 | SMU: Champions NUS: NA |
| 6th Perera | Colombo (online) | ~ 25 | SMU: 1st-runner-up NUS: NA |
SMU won the inaugural edition of the Unjust Enrichment Moot organised by the University of Queensland. The final against University of Sydney was judged by Justice Roger Derrington, Justice John Bond, and Professor Kit Barker.
NUS and SMU both reached the semi-finals of the Jackson WTO Moot this year, with NUS progressing to the championship final, a first for Singapore.
Endnotes
| ↑1 | The previous reports can be found in “A review of the 2021/22 international moots season”, Law Gazette, September 2022. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | Mediation or negotiation competitions are excluded from this recap, though our schools continue to excel in such competitions. In 2023 for instance, Singapore teams won the CDRC Vienna and HSF-Delhi competitions. |
| ↑3 | https://nica.team/news/nica-team-law-school-ranking-has-been-anounced/. |
| ↑4 | Grand Slams are class-leading competitions that attract a substantial number of teams and are perceived to have a particular prestige not just due to scale and number of teams participating but also the quality of the organisation, participants, judging, and surrounding events. They currently comprise the Jessup, Vis, Vis East, Price, International Criminal Court, and Frankfurt moots: see The International Moot Court Compendium: https://www.internationalmoots.org. |
