A team of three students from the Faculty of Law, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) emerge with a second position finish at the 2016 World Rounds of the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition held in Guadalajara in Mexico.
The team appeared as Africa’s representatives at the 2016 World Rounds of the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition held in Guadalajara in Mexico where this year’s International Astronautical Congress (IAC) also held.
The team leader, Adekemi Timilehin narrates the experience to Lawyard:
“Having obtained the ticket to represent Africa in the World round of 2016 Manfred Lach moot court competition in Guadalajara, Mexico, the mountain looked insurmountable.
However, before I continue this story, let me stress that my team is grateful to God because He alone made it possible.
We journeyed to Abuja in a bid to get sponsorship for the competition. Our budget was ₦7.3 million and it was obvious that we could not sponsor ourselves.
By His grace and after several discussions, the Ministry of Science and Technology agreed to sponsor us.
Rehearsals were intense because we knew our opponents were equally good. Having obtained the needed documents and sponsorship, we left Abuja for Mexico on 24th of September.
We had a connecting flight to Paris before we headed to Mexico. We arrived Mexico Sunday night (Mexican Time). We settled down and waited until the next day to visit the conference centre for registration and other preliminary matters.
At the Semi finals, we faced McGill Institute of Air and Space Law, Canada representing North America region and we won.
Our win was not borne out of luck but what I call favour because the Canadian team was also very good.
The judges however commented that they liked our structure of argument and responses to questions. Hence they saw us as the better team to proceed to the finals.”
Meanwhile, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens representing Europe region defeated Curtin University, Australia representing Asia-Pacific region at the semifinals to equally qualify to the world round.
The final held on a Thursday and both teams were fully prepared.
The final was presided over by sitting International Court of Justice (ICJ) judges; Judge Xue, Judge Peter Tomka and Judge Grevian. The chief judge was Judge Tomka, being the vice-president of the ICJ.
We argued for the Applicant while Athens argued for the Respondent.
At the end of both arguments, space law experts walked up to us and congratulated us on our success but unfortunately when the ICJ Judges came in, they decided in favour of the respondent. In other words, Athens won.
The Hall was dead silent as it took some time for persons in the court room to congratulate the Europe team.
In all we thank God. We left Mexico the next day, that is Friday and arrived Nigeria safely.”
