The John H. Jackson Moot Court Competition

The John H. Jackson Moot Court Competition. is an international moot court competition on WTO law. The competition takes place on a yearly basis, with its first edition dating back to 2002. The competition was formerly known as ELSA Moot Court Competition on WTO but has been renamed in 2018 after the American professor of law John Howard Jackson.

The competition is structured into six regional rounds all over the world and a final oral round where around 25 selected teams take part in. Each edition of the moot court hosts around one hundred teams constituted of two to four law students.

The Competition simulates a hearing of the WTO dispute settlement system. Teams prepare and analyse a fictitious case created by specialists of WTO Law and present their arguments for both the Complainant and the Respondent, first in a written format and then in front of a Panel which consists of WTO and trade law experts.

The competition is organised by the European Law Students' Association (ELSA) and is technically supported by the World Trade Organization. It gathers participants from around 40 countries and 80 universities every year. The 18th and the 19th editions of the Competition where mainly organised online.

Since 2020, Pascal Lamy, former Director General of the WTO, is the Patron of the Competition.

The competition

Organisers

The Competition is organized by the international board of the European Law Students’ Association (ELSA). The European Law Students’ Association (ELSA) is an international, independent, non-political, non-profit making organisation for students and recent graduates in the field of Law. ELSA organises international project, amongst which the John H. Jackson Moot Court Competition.

The administrative planning of the Competition, the coordination of the Regional Rounds, and the organisation of the Final Oral Round is carried out by ELSA and the regional rounds of the competition are organized by selected hosts (universities, entities, firms)

Sponsors and supporters

The John H. Jackson Moot Court Competition is supported by multiple historical sponsors, in addition to the technical support of the World Trade Organization. They are providing financial and academic support to the organisation.

Van Bael & Bellis is the main sponsor of the John H. Jackson Moot Court Competition. Baker McKenzie, Akin Gump and Steptoe are the gold sponsors of the Competition and Sidley Austin and White and Case are the silver sponsors of the Competition.

Georgetown Law is the main academic supporter of the John H. Jackson Moot Court Competition and the World Trade Institute (WTI) and the European Public Law Organization (EPLO) are the academic supporters of the Competition

Awards

During the Regional Rounds as well as during the Final Oral Round of the Competition, some teams and some participants are Awarded. The sponsors and supporters of the Competition are providing prizes for some of the Awards during the Competition.

The awards are:

• Best Complainant Written Submission Awards, for the Complainant, the Respondent and Overall;

• Best Orator Awards, for the Preliminaries, the Quarter-Finals, the Semi-Finals and the Final;

• Runner up of the round;
• Winner of the round.

Structure of the competition

1. The Written Round

On the 15th of September, the new edition is launched and the Case if published. The teams taking part in the competition have then between four and five months to draft two written submissions of 35 pages maximum each, one for each side of the dispute (Complainant and Respondent).

This round is not eliminatory, and all the teams submitting the written submissions will take part in the Regional Rounds. There the scores of the written submissions will be added to the scores they will receive in their pleading.

2. The Regional Rounds

All the teams that submitted a Written Submission will proceed to one of the 6 Regional Oral Rounds, depending on their location, from February to May of the second semester of the Edition. They will then plead against each other in sessions of 2 hours 30, at least two times.

Six rounds, as follow, are taking place in a new location every ear, hosted by Institution, chapters of ELSA or ALSA or Universities:

• First and Second European Regional Rounds (including all the countries where an ELSA group is present);
• East Asia & Oceania Regional Round;
• West & South Asia Regional Round;
• All American Regional Round;
• African Regional Round.

They will first plead for the Complainant and the Respondent side in the preliminary sessions, then the four selected teams will plead during the Semi-Finals of the regional round and the winning teams of the Semi-Finals are taking part in the Final of the Round, open to public.

3. Final Oral Round

The 25 selected teams of the Regional Rounds gather in Geneva, at the WTO Headquarters and at the Graduate Institute, where the Final Oral Round of the competition takes place at the end of June.

The Final Oral Round is structured in the same way as the regional rounds.

Overview of the previous editions

Winners of the previous editions

Edition	Year	Winning Team
20th	2021-22	University of Zurich, Switzerland
19th	2020-21	University of Colombo, Sri Lanka
18th	2019-20	Government Law College, Mumbai, India
17th	2018-19	Strathmore University, Kenya
16th	2017-18	Graduate Institute for International Studies, Switzerland
15th	2016-17	Harvard Law School, USA
14th	2015-16	Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Colombia
13th	2014-15	National University of Juridical Sciences, India
12th	2013-14	University of Athens, Greece
11th	2012-13	Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Colombia
10th	2011-12	Graduate Institute for International Studies, Switzerland
9th	2010-11	University of Melbourne, Australia
8th	2009-10	National University of Juridical Sciences, India
7th	2008-09	University of Melbourne, Australia
6th	2007-08	University of Los Andes, Colombia
5th	2006-07	University of Melbourne, Australia
4th	2005-06	University of Sydney, Australia
3rd	2004-05	City University London, United Kingdom
2nd	2003-04	London School of Economics, United Kingdom
1st	2002-03	University College London, United Kingdom

Cases of the previous editions

Edition	Case	Case Authors
19th	Budica - Measures relating to the importation and marketing of nutrition food bars	Gustavo Guarín-Duque; Julián Becerra-Sánchez; Sara Lucía Dangón-Novoa
18th	Taikon– Requirements on the Importation of Prepared Foods and Live Animals from Astor	Geraldo Vidigal
17th	Zycron – Certain Measures Related to Electric Vehicles Charging Points and Infrastructure	Maria Anna Corvaglia; Rodrigo Polanco Lazo
16th	Borginia– Measures Affecting Trade in Textile Products	Prof. James J. Nedumpara
15th	The CHIMEHA FTA between Chilo, Meco and Haito	Dr. Gabrielle Marceau
14th	Eriador – Measures affecting the electricity sector	Andrew Lang
13th	Viridium – Measures Affecting the Agricultural Sector	Nicolas Lamp
12th	Aquitania – Measures Affecting Water Distribution and Sewage Collection Services	Markus Krajewski
11th	Fixitania – Certain Measures affecting Financial Services and Influencing the Exchange-rate	Prof. Dr. Christoph Herrmann
10th
9th	Russelia – Measures Affecting the Importation of Sheep and Sheep Products from Aldousia	Dr Tomer Broude; Dr Lukasz Gruszczynski
8th	Ipland Certain Measures Affecting the Protection and Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights	Prof. Bryan Mercurio
7th	Ecoland – Measures Relating to Biofuels Made from Pine Cones	Prof. Bradly Condon
6th	Teleland – Measures Affecting Telecommunications Services	Prof. Shin-yi Peng
5th	Factoril – Compulsory Licensing of Pharmaceutical Patent	Dr Tania Voon
4th	Subsidia – Agricultural Subsidies on Sweet Biscuits, Wheat & Pork	Prof. Jacques Bourgeois; Prof. David A. Gantz; Dr. Laura Nielsen
3rd	Dispute concerning Paradise – Differential Tariff Restrictions on Food Imports from Developing Countries	Prof. Robert Howse
2nd	Dispute Concerning Mullavia - Measures Undertaken for the Establishment of the CUMCURIA Arrangement	Dr James Mathis
1st	Bohemian Union – Import Restrictions on Tuna from the Empire of Avalon.