Report of the 2022 Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition
This year's European Rounds of the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition took place from 22 – 28 March 2022. For the second consecutive year the competition was held in a fully virtual format due to the pandemic. This year saw teams from 12 universities, 33 students, 52 judges and 11 timekeepers take part in the competition. The ECSL would like to thank everyone that made this competition possible, especially the local co-organiser, the University of Vienna.
The preliminary rounds were held during the first three days of the competition. Each team was able to plead applicant and respondent twice, allowing for overall four pleadings per team. Three virtual courtrooms were held simultaneously, monitored by the Executive Secretariat. Following three hard fought days of preliminary rounds, four teams progressed to the semi-final rounds, which were judged by Prof. Armel Kerrest, Dr. Marco Ferrazzani, Prof. Maria del Carmen Munoz-Rodriguez, Prof. Gerhard Hafner, Mr. Alexander Soucek and Dr. Martha Mejía-Kaiser, respectively. The four semi-finalists were:
- National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece:
- Team Members: Georgios Chatzicharalampous, Sofia Kassara & Vera Palialexi
- Coaches: Prof. George Kyriakopoulos & Niki Giannakou
- King’s College London, UK:
- Team Members: Trisha Unnikrishnan, Siddharth Soneja & Jules Pere
- Coaches: Philippa Webb & Luca Erhart
- Sofia University, Bulgaria:
- Team Members: Mariya Zhelyazkova, Ana Komsalova & Anatali Georgieva
- Coaches: Nedko Radev & Nicoletta Vassileva
- The University of Leiden, the Netherlands:
- Team Members: Michael Gould & Gabriella Mifsud
- Coaches: Dimitra Stefoudi & Miraslava Kazlouskaya
Final Round of the European MLMC 2022
After a day of semi final rounds, two teams proceeded to the final round. Both teams presented excellent arguments before the judges' bench comprised for the occasion of Prof. Joanne Irene Gabrynowicz, Prof. Sergio Marchisio, and Ms. Jenni Tapio. The finalists of this year's MLMC were the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and the University of Leiden. After intense deliberations by the judges, an online Award Ceremony was held to announce the various awards granted by the International Institute of Space Law (IISL) Young Scholar Fund:
- Best Oralist: Georgios Chatzicharalampous, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece (100 euros)
- Best Written Memorials: University of Cologne, Germany (125 euros)
- European Champions: University of Leiden, Netherlands (200 euros)
The ECSL wishes to congratulate Ms. Gabriella Mifsud and Mr. Michael Gould on their victory in the European Rounds and wishes them the best of luck for the World Rounds.
As it has been the case for the past years, the European Best Oralist will be offered the opportunity to undertake an internship. For the 2022 edition, we are once again delighted to announce that the Best Oralist has been offered an internship at the legal department of the European Space Agency, subject to further internal discussions between the Best Oralist and ESA. The ECSL would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all the participants from all over Europe which have completed the Written and Oral Rounds of the 2022 European Rounds of the MLMC.
Judges and Organisational Team Members
The ECSL would like to extend our gratitude to all our volunteering judges, including: Emilie Le Bert, Andre Farand, Roman Karpov, Sarah Moens, Lukas Jung, Clara Baumgartner, Sa'id Mosteshar, María-del-Carmen Muñoz-Rodríguez, Gerhard Hafner, Tomas Hrozensky, Hugo Lopez, Alla Pozdnakova, Yvonne Karimi-Schmidt, Astrid Reisinger-Coracini, Gernot Fritz, Philip Janig, Roman Friedrich, Christopher Newman, Johannes Tropper, Michael Friedl, Ruth Pritchard-Kelly, Jean-Claude Vecchiatto, Gianfranco Nucera, Jane Hofbauer, Ioana Bratu, Martha Mejia-Kaiser, Rada Popova, Maija Lonnqvist, Maximilian Gartner, Viviana Lavicoli, Maximilian Bertamini, Armel Kerrest, Steven Freeland, Vincent Seffinga, Gina Petrovici, Tanja Masson-Zwaan, Alexander Soucek, Joao Marques de Azevedo, Numa Isnard, Joanna Langlade, Hamza Hameed, Margaux Mossink, Jenni Tapio, Marco Ferrazzani, Joanne Gabrynowicz, Sergio Marchisio, Balázs Bartóki-Gönczy, Chehineze Bouafia, Cecile Gaubert, Dorota Englender, Ilaria Zilioli, Nicolas German.
The ECSL also extends its gratitude to all the organisational team members, including: Laura-Marine Vioujard, Ana Nunes, Tim Blawat, Marco Bottin, Cristina Iannibelli, Yoan Talkov, Roser Almenar Rodriguez, Matylda Berus, Dorit Aschauer, Max Felbermayr, Hristina Talkova, Batuhan Betin.