Levan Alexidze International Law Moot Court Competition 2024 – promoting excellence in research and training of International Law
Levan Alexidze International Law Moot Court Competition (LA-IL-MCC) 2024 – Edition VI has officially concluded the busy year of academic and research activities of the Levan Alexidze Foundation throughout 2024.
The LA-IL-MCC, launched in 2019, to honour the Founding Father of teaching and research of International Law in Georgia, Professor Levan Alexidze, a Full member of the National Academy of Sciences of Georgia, is the only English language Public International Law Moot Court Competition in Georgia, which brings together academics, professionals and students from across Europe and Asia. The Competition, giving an opportunity to law students to participate in an advocacy competition, every year addresses highly pertinent issues of Public International Law in the prism of hypothetical International legal problem.
Levan Alexidze Lecture – 2024, another tradition instituted by the Levan Alexidze Foundation in 2019, was led within the remit of the Competition by Professor Rick Lawson of Leiden University, emphasising the role Professor Levan Alexidze had played in promoting principles of democracy and human rights protection from the moment of working on the Act on Restoration of the Independent Statehood of Georgia.
Supported by the European Union and held as a product of a very close cooperation between the International Center for Migration Policy Development and the Levan Alexidze Foundation, the LA-IL-MCC-2024 gave students an opportunity to be challenged in different fields of International Law, including legal status of maritime zones of occupied territories under International Law, coercive environment as s driving force for deportation and transfer from occupied territories, massive displacement under the guise of evacuations during active hostilities.
As throughout its previous five editions, the LA-IL-MCC welcomed students in an environment consisting of extensive educational programme dedicated to the topics of the competition. The rounds of competition were proceeded by series of academic talks dedicated to the Coercive Environment as a Pretext for Deportation and Transfer, Status of Maritime Zones of Occupied Territory, Forced Displacement under the Guise of Evacuations. The competitors tested their knowledge, professional originality and advocacy skills in a friendly competition presenting their arguments to a jury comprised of professionals from different jurisdictions – both practitioners and professionals of academic and research circles. Consequently, the students with diverse skills and knowledge in Public International Law were challenged before panels of international law experts through various rounds encouraging communication among students and legal professionals.
We are thrilled to announce a Champion of the Year – team 005 of Mr Guri Ebralidze, Ms Mariam Bakhtadze, Ms Elene Gatchava and Mr Luka Pachuashvili, TSU, winning the Levan Alexidze International Law Moot Court Competition – 2024, while acknowledging the merits of a runner-up team 002 of Mr Nika Tepnadze, Ms Teona Chachua, Ms Mariam Khomasurids and Ms Lizi Svintradze, TSU.
The Migration Talk, another traditional collaborative event between the ICMPD and Levan Alexidze Foundation, as well as workshops of various international law issues were led by Dr. Saba Pipia of Georgian-American University, Researcher and Teaching Assistant at Ghent University Louis Galo McDonough, as well as Dr. Eitan Diamond of Diakonia International Humanitarian Law Centre.
