In Conversation – The winning Jessup Team from NLSIU

Roughly two weeks ago, a team of four law students from India won the final round of the Phillip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition in Washington, D.C. They bested teams from across the world and in doing so, became only the second Indian team to achieve this feat in more than five decades. In this informal chat in a classroom at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore (NLSIU), three of them share their experiences, the lessons learnt, and what makes “Jessup” the ultimate mooting prize..“A lot of students think mooting is the coolest thing to do in law school – I don’t think that should be the approach. There are thousands of other things that law school offers.”.Its not something one expects to hear. Especially not from Geetha Hariharan, the speaker of the winning team from NSLIU. I am sitting with fourth-year Shreya Jain, and final-years Geetha Hariharan and Akshaya Ramadurai, three-quarters of the winning team. The other speaker, Raag Yadava was unable to make it for the chat (he later replied through email) and they are sharing their thoughts on mooting in general and Jessup in particular..“Even now, I don’t think it has really sunk in,” says Geetha and all of them nod in unison. It is not too difficult to understand why. When it comes to sheer scale, few moot court competitions can come close to Jessup; this year’s edition for instance, saw the registration of teams from more than 90 countries. Scale apart, Jessup offers the chance to argue before some of the leading experts in the world. “There was one heady moment,” recounts Geetha, “when Raag cited the President of the International Court of Justice back to her.” Furthermore, the prestige associated with Jessup has been built within law schools themselves. “We were always told that Jessup is it and, I think, most of the other participants felt the same way.”.Their journey to the finals started more than six months ago, in the last week of September when the university’s moot court selections concluded. Unlike other law schools, NLSIU does not have a separate selection round for Jessup where students are free to form their own teams for participating in the selection rounds..Qualifying for Jessup is just the first step though. Mooting can be a fairly expensive exercise; apart from printing, photocopying and couriering costs, it is funding the cost of travel itself that can be a detriment. Of course, students are free to seek for “sponsors” but this is often a hurried, last minute affair with negligible results..And this is where the role of the law school administration really comes into play. Participation in an international moot can cost upwards of a lakh and a half per person. “Our Vice Chancellor got us 75 per cent of the funds we required,” says Akshaya, “that really helped us.” But that was not the only proactive measure taken by the administration. “There were certain books that the library did not have,” says Geetha, “we asked them to buy it and they did. They just closed their eyes and bought it.” Shreya, whose exams clashed with the moot, was allowed to take the examination at a later point in time. The team members also benefitted from concessions with respect to attendance, something that has only recently been introduced at NSLIU. Lastly, they were allowed to choose project topics, which were related to the moot problem. This freedom was of great help; Shreya for instance was able to complete a project in six hours (“It was not cut paste”, she clarifies immediately). Moreover such measures, evidently, have produced the desired result.. “The moment Raag won the Shwebel [for Best Oralist in the final round], I knew we had won”, says Akshaya. She was the only one of the four who would think so. Geetha, on her part, thought the exact opposite – “I thought they had a mistake in the scoring,” It all seemed a bit too difficult to believe. Even when they met the judges and the previous year’s finalists (a team from Moscow who told them to make sure to clean the trophy with toothpaste once they are done), the realization did not fully sink in. And, as they mention now and then, it still hasn’t..It is interesting to hear their thoughts on the performances of Indian teams in international competitions. “We often do not spend enough time on the oral rounds”, says Geetha; the manner in which arguments are expressed does not seem to be given enough importance. And this is one aspect that Indian teams, traditionally excellent in research, need to seriously work on..To counter this problem, Raag and Geetha would have as many practice rounds as possible, they would even tweak their mannerisms slightly in each round in order to hone in on that perfect combination. The four of them must have spent close to 12-14 hours a day working and practicing..Another way in which NLSIU helped, albeit indirectly, was that it allowed the team members access to an extensive alumni network, many of whom had either participated in previous editions of the competition or could help in some way or the other. “No one said no, everyone was willing to help”, says Geetha..It clearly wasn’t all work though..Raag’s favorite moments for instance, included the long nights researching in the library and “laughing over things best described as nonsense”. They may well have been overworked and under huge amounts of stress; it certainly did not preclude them from having their share of fun..“Raag called me up and said that the travel agent had messed up,” remembers Shreya, “and I would be forced to travel alone with a stop over in Riyadh! He even sent me a fake PNR number. And all I could think of is what will I need to wear at the airport!” Raag, for his part though, refuses to take any credit, “[It] was largely Geetha’s idea.”.And this “fun” aspect is something that all four of them repeatedly stressed upon. “If you are not having fun,” says Shreya, “there is no way you are going to able to work for 12-14 hours a day”..For Akshaya, one of the fondest memories was the welcome the team received at the Bangalore airport. Students and teachers had gathered at the airport; they were so boisterous that they had to eventually be told to calm down. One can only imagine the excitement in the NLSIU campus as well; a note on the NLSIU notice board compared the atmosphere to the time when India won the World Cup. It must have been phenomenal..Of course, the warm welcome at the airport was not the end of the affair. Even now, their fellow students show their support in a variety of ways. “A few days after coming back, I missed my roll call since I was busy talking, “ says Shreya, “and immediately everyone started saying ‘Just because you won Jessup’!” As if to prove the point, while we are talking a student pokes his head into the classroom, says “Just because you won Jessup” and leaves. That has been going on for the past two weeks and, from the looks of it, is unlikely to end anytime soon.