Fifth IISL Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition

On 2 April 1995, the European preliminaries of the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition were organised by X ECSL at ESA Headquarters. This years ' case concerned liability for commercial space endeavours, and a group of fictious states were involved: Parlivia and Califonium et al.

Teams from the Universities of Helsinki, Leiden, Paris I and a joint team from the Universities of Jaen and Granada competed for a place in the final against the winners of the American preliminaries. Each team has to prepare the case for applicant (Parlivia) as well as respondent (Californium et al.) and is judged on their written briefs and on their oral pleadings. The written briefs were judged by: Catherine Baudin (ESA Legal Affairs), Thomas Beer (ESA Contracts Dept.), Knut Focke (Univ. of Cologne), Anne-Marie Malavialle (Institut de droit comparé) and Olivier Ribbelink (Univ. of Amsterdam). All teams gathered in the cinema room at ESA Headquarters to plead in front of a distinguished Court of Judges, consisting of Prof. Francis Lyall (Univ. of Aberdeen), Prof. Elizabeth Back-Impallomeni (Univ. of Padua) and Helge Weber (ESA Contracts Dept.) during the morning session, and Ernst Fasan (Fasan Weinwurm & Partners), Prof. Armel Kerrest de Rozavel (Univ. of Brest) and Kevin Madders (Brick Court Chambers and Consultant, SNI) during the afternoon session. The overall level of the participating teams was high, but it was the team from the University of Helsinki, consisting of Ms Anna Markkanen and Ms Satu Heikkilä, who were adjudged the winning team. They will go to the IAF/IISL Conference in Beijing and will plead against the University of Wyoming, the winners of the American preliminaries. The final will be held on the afternoon of 10 October 1996.

The Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition offers students the unique opportunity to apply their knowledge of space law to a practical case, and to practice their written and oral legal skills. Interest in the competition is growing worldwide and perhaps preliminaries in Asia will be set up in the future. All universities interested in participating can obtain more information from the ECSL Secretariat.