Iraqi Law Students Compete in International Moot Court Competition

Test their forensic skills against top students from 88 countries

By Phillip Kurata
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Law students from Iraq have matched forensic wits against law students from 87 other countries in Iraq's first participation in an international competition for budding lawyers.

Lajan M. Amin, Paiwast A. Marouf, Erian J. Hamid and Rebaz K. Muhammad from the law school of Sulaymaniya University are representing Iraq in the 46th annual Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition taking place in Washington March 27 through April 2.

Working in teams of two, the law students presented their arguments before a mock tribunal of three justices pretending to be the International Court of Justice. The Iraqis spoke in Arabic, the judges in English, and their exchanges were interpreted simultaneously.

The competition was structured in a way that pitted one team of student lawyers representing the fictitious Republic of Appollonia against another team representing the fictitious Kingdom of Raglan, an archipelago lying about 700 kilometers off the Appollonian coast.

The dispute, which Appollonia and Raglan have taken to the International Court of Justice for settlement, arises from a hypothetical incident involving the Appollonian-flagged cargo ship, the Mairi Maru. The Mairi Maru, carrying a cargo of toxic nuclear waste, was seized by pirates as it was passing through the Raglan archipelago.

The pirates stole the ship's navigation and communication equipment and its safe, disabled its steering system and abandoned it to a storm. The storm drove the disabled ship onto uninhabited sandbars, unclaimed by any nation, southeast of the Raglan archipelago, where the ship began to leak toxic waste. The sandbars, famous for sport fishing, generated significant tourist income for the Raglans. To limit environmental damage, the Raglan navy towed the Mairi Maru and its toxic cargo into blue water and sank it at a depth of 9000 meters.

The hypothetical case "involves issues of responsibility for piracy, nuclear transport, and whether consent is required for a ship to enter another country's territorial waters with a potentially hazardous nuclear cargo," said Haider Ala Hamoudi, a coach of the Iraqi team.

During a preliminary round March 29, Lajan M. Amin and Paiwast A. Marouf presented oral arguments on behalf of Raglan. The two Iraqi women invoked the U.N. Conference on the Law of the Sea, international conventions related to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and a number of legal precedents to press Raglan's claims for compensation for the release of nuclear waste following the piracy.

In presenting their arguments, the two Iraqi law students faced a withering barrage of questions from the three judges.

"If Raglan is not party to the IAEA, then how can you use the IAEA as a basis for law? Does the IAEA specifically establish rights for third states? What is the binding nature of IAEA law?" the presiding magistrate asked.

A judge asked Marouf about Raglan's right to sink the Mairu Maru because it posed an environmental threat.

"Raglan is entitled to take any action necessary to protect its environment," responded Marouf.

The magistrate pointed to the three women arguing the case of Appollonia. "If it is determined that these three women pose a threat to the environment, can I take them out and shoot them?" the magistrate asked.

The question provoked a momentary silence from the Raglan counsel while a chuckle rippled through the spectators in the room, but the serious intent of the question was unmistakable.

It highlighted the degree of legal sophistication required to operate in the international legal environment.

After the moot court was adjourned, Amin commented, "This was a wonderful experience for us because it was the first time for us to practice at this level and it was a great opportunity to learn a great deal."

Marouf said, "It was a great experience for us. It was the first experience for Iraq to participate in international competition. I hope that in future years not only our university but also universities from other cities will be able to participate."

Rebaz K. Muhammad, a Sulaymaniya University law student, who sat in the audience at this session, said participation in the competition allowed the students to gain a great deal of experience in presenting oral arguments in an international legal setting.

"We learned a great deal about public international law as well as maritime law, an issue which is not covered very deeply in the Iraqi educational system. We learned a great deal from the other teams as well in the process of arguing with them," he added.

The Iraqis' participation in the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition was arranged by the International Human Rights Law Institute, located at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. With funding provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the institute is operating a legal education reform project at three law schools in Iraq: Baghdad, Basra and Sulaymaniya.

David Guinn, the executive director of the institute, said the program involves four main components: 1) library reconstruction, information technology and infrastructure development; 2) curriculum reform; 3) clinical education; and 4) a national effort involving law professors concerning legal reform.

The students' participation in the Jessup competition was part of the clinical education component.

Two Sulaymaniya University law professors, Omer R. Saman and Muhammad Hanoon Jafar, accompanied the students to Washington.

Saman said the Iraqi team held training sessions with Italian and American teams before the competition began. He said the training sessions helped the Iraqis spot weaknesses and improve their performance.

"Hopefully, in the future, we will be able to improve our preparations and send a better performing team," Saman said.

Jafar said after returning to Iraq, he is going to organize a similar moot court competition to demonstrate oral arguments presentation to the entire law school student body.

"The notion of practice-based education has generated a lot of interest in Iraqi law schools. Holding this court would hopefully raise student interest in practice-based education," he said.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)