The scene at the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) in Jnana Bharathi, Bangalore, on Saturday night was reminiscent of when India won the cricket World Cup.
NLSIU students were celebrating the victory of four of their own in Philip C Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition in Washington DC, hailed as the world cup of mooting.
Final year students Raag Yadava, Akshaya Ramadurai and Geetha Hariharan and fourth year student Shreya Jain defeated the Singapore Management University (SMU) team in the finals on Saturday.
The trophy is coming back to India after 14 years — NLSIU last won it in 1999. Raag also bagged the award for the Best Speaker.
“All of us were in front of our computers waiting for an update as there was no live streaming. One could tell we won it when the entire hostel erupted in celebratory shouts,” said Dheer Bhatnagar, convenor of The Moot Court Society at NLSIU. “It was unprecedented. Students were out till 5 am celebrating.”
It is one of the world’s largest moot court competitions with participants from over 550 law schools in more than 80 countries.
It is a simulation of a fictional dispute between countries before the International Court of Justice, the judicial wing of the UN.
“Raag has been to Jessup before, which played a major role in figuring out the strategy. All the team members worked throughout the year and they could be seen preparing at the library all the time. We have seen how the team worked hard for this,” Dheer added.
Final year student Pratik Karki, who called the winners “the fab four”, said, “The mood here (at NLSIU) is electric. What the team has done is exceptional and we are very happy to be studying in the same institution.”
NLSIU had won the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Competition in October last year.