Two weeks ago, a group of three master students from Erasmus School of Law took part in the Pax Moot 2020 – Asser Round competition and won the Best Written Pleadings Award. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the competition was organised online this year. After two days of pleading rounds, the team qualified for the semi-finals of the competition where they faced the students from the University of Cologne.
The Erasmus School of Law team, which consisted of Private Law (Privaatrecht) Master students Emma Clements, Arend Duijnstee and Hagir Naas, had to plead on matters of private international law in an imaginary case concerning aspects of corporate social responsibility of a EU mother company and its subsidiary in Africa, employment issues, and environmental damages inflicted on the local community. After two days of pleadings in the preliminary rounds against the students from Palacký University Faculty of Law (Czech Republic), Sofia University St. Kliment Ohrdiski (Bulgaria), University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), and University of Antwerp (Belgium), the Erasmus School of Law team qualified in the semi-finals of the PAX Moot.
In the semi-finals, the Erasmus School of Law team faced the University of Cologne, while the other semi-final was disputed between the Singapore Management University Faculty of Law and Maastricht University. The Erasmus School of Law team narrowly lost the semi-final against the University of Cologne team that went on to become PAX Moot 2020 – Asser Round winners.
Although not qualifying for the 2020 final, the Erasmus School of Law team was awarded the Best Written Pleading Awards by the organisers of the Pax Moot. The prize was announced by the jury of the Moot final: Prof. Horatia Muir Watt, the former HCCH Secretary General Hans van Loon, Alexander Layton QC, and Prof. Marta Pertegas.
In preparing for the competition, the team was trained and co-coached by Dr Alina Ontanu and Georgia Antonopoulou LL.M., with the support of Priskila Penasthika LL.M.
The team wants to thank our Erasmus School of Law colleagues who supported us in the process and the Education Office.