INTERNSHIPS, MOOTS & PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition
Named after former President of the ICJ (and former Judge of the competition) this niche moot is organized annually by the International Institute for Space Law. Interested teams compete in one of the three regional qualifying rounds – North America, Europe or Asia Pacific. The winning team from region then advances to the World Finals which are held in conjunction with the International Astronautical Congress and the Colloquium on the Law of Outer Space. Teams receive full funding to the final round from different space agencies; the winner of the North American Round is sponsored by NASA. The finals are judged by three sitting judges of the International Court of Justice.
Participation in this moot has grown exponentially since it was first established in 1992, the cumulative total for all rounds now exceeds 50 teams.
Manfred Lachs Facts
Focus area: Space Law, Public International Law
Organizers: International Institute of Space Law
Official webpage: http://www.spacemoot.org/
Format: There are three regional rounds, winners advance to the World Finals. At the World Finals, one team with the highest cumulative memorial scores advances straight to the final, the other two face-off in a semi-final.
Registration: mid-November – mid January.
Submission of briefs: Early march/mid-march
Qualifying Round: late march
Final Round: mid-October (note: team members who graduate after the regional round are eligible to participate).
Prizes: Manfred Lachs Trophy (Winning team), Sterns and Tennen Award for best Oralist, Eilene M Galloway Award for Best Memorials.
Other information: Teams of three only. Competition materials are available on the website, and the problem is released way before registration. Participants are provided with DVDs of past editions before the oral rounds.
Selection at NYU
Last year selection was based on a points system, similar to that for the ELSA-WTO Moot Court. Interested candidates were asked to provide a resume, statement of interest and brief (two page) analysis of the problem.
NYU team for the 2006-07 competition
Brian Beck is a second year law student. Brian holds an undergraduate degree in Aero-Space Engineering from Princeton University. He is interested in Intellectual Property Rights and will be joining the law offices of Kenyon and Kenyon LLP, upon graduation.
Nina Mlakar is a member of the LLM 2007 class. Nina graduated with a law degree from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. After clerking on the High Court of Ljubljana and passing the bar exam, she worked for a law firm, before moving to Luxembourg to work for the European Court of Justice.
