Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow has bagged the second best Written Submissions (English Language) at the 13th Nelson Mandela World Human Rights Moot Court Competition, organized by Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria in association with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations.

The team comprising Ms Sushmita Sharma and Mr Abhinav Dixit (Class of 2024) along with Mr Vanaj Vidyan (Class of 2023), as the team coach, represented the University at the competition.

Teams from across the world participated in the competition which consisted of a preliminary memorial knockout round, with only 36 teams qualifying to the orals round.

The subject-matter of the Moot was based on International Human Rights Law, including the ICCPR, ICESCR, ECHR, ACHR along with other regional treaties.

The human rights impact, validity of lockdown measures, compulsory vaccination and emojis as a tool for abuse of freedom of expression online, were the pertinent questions in the moot problem. The Judges in the competition included eminent lawyers and Judges from various International Courts, the International Law Commission and the Commonwealth Secretariat.

RMLNLU at HSF Competition Law Moot - KCL

A team comprising Mr Rohan Bhargava (Class of 2022), Mr Sushant Kumar, Mr Vanshaj Dhiman & Ms Yogita (Class of 2023) represented the Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University at the 7th edition of the Herbert Smith Freehills Competition Law Moot 2021 - King’s College London.

The Written Pleadings of the team was ranked 5th, which were also the 2nd Best Indian Pleadings, after NLU Jodhpur (ranked 4). The subject matter of the Moot was the EU Competition Law, and the moot problem, which bore a resemblance to the Apple-Spotify case, also involved concepts of data, privacy and the EU GDPR.

The Moot witnessed participation of 39 teams from across the world including India, the EU, Hong Kong, Singapore, Brazil and Russia, among other countries. Top 12 teams based on the written submissions had qualified for the Oral Rounds, held virtually due the Covid 19 pandemic.

Other teams, aside from RMLNLU and NLUJ to have qualified for the orals from India, included National Law University, Delhi and Symbiosis Law School, Pune. The judges for the competition comprised legal professionals and partners from law firms including HSF, leading competition law professors from Universities in the UK and the EU, and legal officers of the UK Competition and Markets Authority, among others.

(This note was shared by Campus Ambassador Sushant Kumar)