The University of St. La Salle (USLS) in Bacolod City regained recently the championship in the National Moot Court Competition on International Humanitarian Law.
The USLS last won the championship five years ago. The team will represent the Philippines in the Asia-Pacific regional finals in Hong Kong in 2013.
The USLS won the 2012 competition by beating the Ateneo de Manila Law School in the finals held at the Supreme Court en banc session hall.
The annual competition aims to promote knowledge and appreciation of international humanitarian law (IHL) among Philippine law students.
The USLS and Ateneo faced off over the fictional case of Colonel Jones who was charged in the International Criminal Court for alleged violations of IHL, also known as the law of armed conflict.
Nadine Abenoja of the USLS, who was chosen best mooter in the final round, said winning the championship again after five years made all the hard work and preparation worth it.
Runner-up Ateneo won awards for best memorials, prepared written arguments from the perspectives of both prosecution and defense.
Pauline Gairanod of the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Law team won the Justice Ines Luciano Best Mooter Award, as the highest-ranking oralist in the elimination rounds. The award, which was given for the first time, honored the Court of Appeals associate justice and chair of the IHL Committee of the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) who passed away last year.
The UP team also won the role-play challenge, during which teams played roles in a simulation aimed at showcasing practical applications of the body of law that sought to limit, for humanitarian reasons, the effects of war.
The final round was judged by a panel composed of Supreme Court Associate Justice Roberto Abad; Dr. Mario Aguja of Mindanao State University-General Santos City; Philippine Judicial Academy chancellor Adolfo Azcuna; Brig. Gen. Domingo Tutaan Jr., chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines-Human Rights Office; Christopher Harland, regional legal advisor for Southeast Asia of the International Commission of the Red Cross (ICRC); and De La Salle University School of Law vice dean Jocelyn Cruz.
Harland, a veteran judge of moot court competitions, said the presence of IHL in curricula, the discussion of the law in the media and the annual commemoration of IHL month in August, showed that the competition had found “a very good home in the Philippines.”
Students from 10 law schools took part in this year’s event organized by ICRC, PRC and the Supreme Court of the Philippines. This year’s competition was hosted by De La Salle University Manila.
Other participants came from Far Eastern University-Manila, San Beda College of Law-Manila, Southwestern University, Saint Louis University, University of Batangas, University of the Cordilleras and Cor Jesu College Law School.
The moot court contest began in 2005 with only six participating schools. It is the only moot court competition that holds its finals in the SC’s en banc session hall.
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