Leiden University Wins First Aviation Law Moot Court Competition

July 21, 2010 at 1:20 pm | Posted in Aviation Law Current Event | Leave a comment

by P.J. Blount with the blog faculty

Source – Bar & Bench:

. . . International Air Law Moot

India has the distinct honour of playing host to the world’s first aviation law moot. The moot was organised jointly by the Sarin Memorial Legal Aid Foundation with the International Institute of Air and Space Law, Leiden University (IIASL) at the Dutch Embassy in New Delhi.

The Sarin-Leiden moot, held between March 2 and 6 saw the Leiden University team comprising Mildred Trogeler, Tridev Budia and Michel Adam, emerge eventual winners from a pool of 11 teams. McGill University, Canada stood runner-ups while National Law University, Delhi stood third in the overall standings. Following them were Bangalore’s Christ University and Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar. The 5 Indian universities that participated were earlier selected from a national level moot which saw 9 teams competing.

The moot is a brainchild of Chandigarh based Nitin Sarin, a lawyer and son of Senior Counsel, M.L. Sarin. Nitin completed his masters in the Air & Space law program offered by IIASL in 2009. Speaking to Bar & Bench, Nitin said, “When I was studying in Leiden, I spoke to my director and told him that we should organize a moot court competition in India. When I came back, I spoke to the director again and made it happen.” He added, “The IIASL is one of the only two universities that offer Masters and Doctorate programs in the field of aviation law, the other being the McGill University in Montreal, Canada.”

Bangalore based Christ University’s Anu Lisa Jose won the best oralist award. Hardeep Singh, a 2nd year student from National Law University, Delhi was awarded the scholarship for an LL.M in Air & Space Law from IIASL for having presented the best oral arguments. This scholarship is awarded to a student from the host country.

The finals were presided over by Dr. Huang, CEO of Indigo Airlines, Michael Whittaker and Prof. Dr. Von Ziegler. The participants had a go at judging the judges as well. Dr. Huang was unanimously elected as the best judge of the moot court.

The Sarin Memorial, set up in the memory of the late Senior Advocate Harbans Lal Sarin and his son Late Ranjit Lal Sarin, is managed voluntarily by lawyers and law students and seeks to provide free legal aid and legal literacy to the poor, downtrodden and handicapped sections of the society. The second edition of this moot is scheduled to be held in Dubai. . . .