From February 24 to March 1, 2023, the 21st Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition was held online in China. The competition was conducted in English and 57 teams from universities in mainland China participated.

This year's team was coached by Associate Professor Zhang Yue from Southeast University School of Law. Dr. Zhang Yue graduated from Madison Law School of Wisconsin and was awarded the third place (team prize) in the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Competition (Vienna Region) for the best defense brief. This year's team consisted of Captain Cao Haiying (Law School, Class of 2020) and team members Ge Yanying (Law School, Class of 2020) and Tan Yun (Law School, Class of 2020) as top debaters, and team member Li Yixiao (Law School, Class of 2020) as alternate debater; team members Hong Lei (Law School, Class of 2020), Chen Pin Yi (Law School, Class of 2020), and Meng Liting (Law School, Class of 2020) as alternate debaters, Meng Liting (Law School, Class of 2020), Song Yutong (Law School, Class of 2022, Master of Laws), Tang Yue (Law School, Class of 2022, Master of Laws) as researchers; former team members Hu Wan Yi (Law School, Class of 2019, Bachelor of Science) and Huang Qiange (Law School, Class of 2019, Bachelor of Science) as student coaches, and also received a lot of guidance from Ms. Dong Luyu of the Law School during the preparation process. This year, the topic of the competition is about the peace treaty.

This year's competition involved cutting-edge topics in international law such as the interpretation of peace treaties, lethal attacks in territories claimed to be under occupation, the legality of unilateral economic sanctions, and the legal consequences of failure to properly dispose of hazardous waste. The Southeastern University Law School team was officially formed in July 2022 and spent the summer break in intensive training. Since the release of the competition topic in September 2022, under the careful guidance of the coaches, all team members conducted in-depth legal research work, read a lot of literature and carefully polished the briefs, and completed the submission of the briefs in January 2023. During the winter break, the team members on the field remained fully engaged, and with the enthusiastic help of previous team members, they conducted intense mock court arguments and more in-depth legal research, and after intensive training, the team members' abilities were improved by leaps and bounds.

In the competition, our team faced Renmin University of China, Sichuan Normal University, China University of Political Science and Law and Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and faced with the strong teams, our debaters responded calmly with solid legal skills and skillful courtroom defense, showing the excellent legal literacy and outstanding thinking ability of law students of Dongda University. The team won the third prize.

This is the fifth time for our team to participate in Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, and the outstanding achievement is indispensable to the great support of the college, the comprehensive guidance of Ms. Zhang Yue and Ms. Dong Luyu, and the unity and hard work of all the team members in the past six months. During the whole preparation process, the team members insisted on the courage of stepping out of the comfort zone, studied a lot of materials, repeatedly polished their ideas, and devoted themselves to the preparation, and finally played well and showed their elegance in the official competition.

The preparation for the competition lasted nearly eight months and coincided with the busiest time of the undergraduate students' junior year. During this time, the coaches and team members devoted almost all of their personal time to the challenge of this Olympic event in the international legal community. For each student on the team, the experience of starting from scratch was difficult, but the scenery and transformation they experienced during the process was exhilarating and gratifying. From familiarity with legal English writing to full English courtroom training, from the cultivation of international law thinking to the deep expansion of legal research capabilities ...... This experience, regardless of the outcome, is invaluable to each team member who has experienced it along the way.

Southeast University College of Law always takes creating a first-class law discipline and cultivating first-class legal talents as the direction of talent training, and attaches great importance to the cultivation of foreign-related rule of law talents. This competition not only fully demonstrated the international vision and debating style of our students, but also marked the gradual realization and fruitful achievement of our goal of strengthening the cultivation of foreign-related legal talents. Although this year's competition has come to an end, the law students of Southeast University will explore the hall of international law far more than that. We wish the Southeast University Law School Jessup team will be more and more courageous, and we hope that next year's competition will achieve more breakthroughs!

Introduction of Jessup Competition

The Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, sponsored by the International Law Students Association (ILSA), is a professional international law moot court competition. Since its inception in 1959, the International Law Moot Court Competition (ILSA) is a professional English-language legal debate competition sponsored by the International Law Students Association (ILSA), and has been held in more than 900 universities in over 100 countries each year. As the largest, oldest and most prestigious English moot court competition in the world, it has been widely recognized by the international community for its difficulty and professionalism, and is known as the Olympic competition of the international legal community.