Jessup Moot is a summer session elective unit (LAWS3010). It is the Australian round of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition.

Members of the Jessup team are all expected to prepare the written memorials and participate in the internal ANU practice moots. The team then participates in the Australian rounds of the Jessup Moot competition and, if the team reaches the Final of the Australian rounds, would compete in the International Rounds in the United States.

There is a maximum of 5 team members.

Applications for selection for the 2009 -10 Jessup Moot team closed in first semester 2009.

More details of Jessup Moot can be viewed at the Jessup website http://www.ilsa.org/jessup/

Jessup competitors find the experience very challenging but an invaluable intensive introduction to international law.

The competition builds the following capacities: knowledge of international law principles, clarity and persuasiveness of argument, and capacity to think and speak concisely and creatively, particularly in response to questions from the bench during the competition.   

Assessment is based on the performance of the students on the team through the entire Jessup period. A common mark is awarded to each Jessup team member based on the performance of the team as evaluated by the convenor and team coach in consultation with the Jessup Faculty ‘Advisor'.

The convenor may vary individual marks in exceptional circumstances.

The criteria on which assessment will be based are:

• The team's capacity to work cooperatively and successfully under pressure
• depth and quality of research
• ability to draft a written international law argument and support it with appropriate authority
• ability to present oral argument in international law, support it with appropriate authority and defend it under questioning
• the level of achievement of the team in the competition, including awards to individual members.

Jessup requires hard work. Effective participation requires a full time commitment throughout the preparation and competition period. Minimal part time employment (up to 10 per cent of normal working hours) is permissible, but only up to the Christmas-New Year period.

The preparation of the team written memorials will start in late November. The memorial submission date is usually about 12 January (possibly earlier for the Australian rounds). Then we hold 12 practice moots. The Australian rounds are held here at the ANU in late January or early February.

The international finals are held in the United States in March or April. The top 2 Australian teams participate in the international competition.

Applicants for enrolment will be considered in the light of these skills: basic familiarity with international law (though completion of an international law unit is not essential); general academic performance; research experience and mooting experience (desirable but not essential). We also seek to find at least one team member with these qualities plus excellent IT skills to help in the demanding requirements of constructing the memorials. Students must not have graduated with an LLB by the time the competition is held.

Recommended: Basic familiarity with international law is necessary, but completion of an international law unit is not required.

Only students selected by the Coordinator for the course, on the basis of criteria adopted by the ANU College of Law, to represent the ANU in the Jessup Moot Competition will be eligible to enrol in the course. Familiarity with International Law and/or mooting and research experience is desirable, as well as a willingness to devote most of the summer period to the undertaking.

Basic familiarity with international law is necessary, but completion of an international law unit is not required.

Vaughan Lowe and Malgosia Fitzmaurice (eds) Fifty Years of the International Court of Justice (1996), Shabtai Rosenne, The Law and Practice of the International Court 1920-2005 (4th ed 2006), Christopher Kee, The Art of Argument: A Guide to Mooting (2006) and David Pope and Dan Hill, Mooting and Advocacy Skills (2007).

To be discussed with each year's team regarding the subjects of each year's Jessup problem.