The five MPP students represented the first Hertie School team to attend the world championships.
The Hertie School’s moot court team was named one of three world champions in memorial writing - the written legal argumentation presented to a court - at the recent Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition in Washington, DC.
“We are very proud of our team, not only for their remarkable accomplishment but for representing public policy students in such a competition, which is generally meant for law school students,” says President Helmut K. Anheier. “It just goes to show that Hertie School students can compete on an international level in fields of all kinds.”
The team of five Hertie School students bested the world’s top law school teams in legal memorial writing. Ahead of the world championships, each team was required to submit two written memorials (one for the applicant and one for the respondent in a case). The Hertie School memorials together took 3rd place (after already scoring 1st place in the German pre-qualifications), and the respondent memorial even won 1st place in the world championships. Teams then present their oral arguments in a series of rounds; the Hertie School team won two out of four matches in the preliminary round.
The second-year Master of Public Policy students on the team were Keri Hartman (US), Kris Best (Canada), Julian Georg (Germany), Rebecca Segall (South Africa) and Kasia Nalewajko (Poland). They received coaching from Pierre Thielbörger, Professor for International Law (Ruhr University Bochum) and Adjunct (Hertie School); Mark Dawson, Professor for European Law and Governance (Hertie School); Postdoctoral Researcher Ana Bobić (Hertie School); and Research Associate Evi Kröker (Hertie School).
“This is a tremendous success for a school that has only participated for four years in this competition,” said Pierre Thielbörger. “And it reflects well on the wide range of topics covered in the school’s curriculum: whether it is about nuclear disarmament, modern espionage or forms of warfare, or judicial corruption – Hertie School students can convincingly argue on all of these topics. That is the strength of a public policy school.”
The Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition is the world's largest moot court competition, with participants from over 685 schools in 100 countries. Around 150 teams are selected to participate in the world championship finals.
Read all about the team’s week-long participation in the Washington, DC finals 1-7 April on their blog.