The 9th edition of the GNLU Gandhinagar International Moot Court Competition 2017 saw last year runners-up Nalsar Hyderabad defeat two-time GIMC winner, George Washington University, as was liveblogged on Legally India by the organisers.
The 9th edition of GNLU’s flagship tier IV moot, held from 1-5 February 2017, was based on “export and import of Aluminium between three fictitious nations, and the imposition of anti-dumping measures”.
It saw participation from 50 different colleges worldwide.
The all second-year team from Nalsar comprised of speakers Ashwin Murthy and Rohan Pratap Singh and researcher Karan Sangani, who also won the best researcher.
Nalsar added a total of 23 MPL points to its kitty from GIMC.
The overall best speaker citation went to Kyle Zhu from GWU, while SLS Pune nabbed the citation for the best written submission.
GLC Mumbai and SLS Pune were the two other semi-finalists, and have been awarded 4 points each.
MPL Points awarded at GIMC 2017:
- Winner: Nalsar Hyderabad (15)
- Runners-up: GWU (8)
- Best Speaker: GWU (8)
- Best Memorial: SLS, Pune (8)
- Best Researcher: Nalsar (8)
- Semi-Finalists: SLS, Pune (4) and GLC, Mumbai (4)
- Organisers: GNLU (2)
Correction in MPL Standings:
We had erroneously previously awarded GLC Mumbai 1 point for organising the MC Chagla Memorial Moot Court Competition 2016. However, since GLC participated in the said moot, points for organising the moot should not have been awarded to GLC, according to the MPL rulebook. Therefore, 1 point has been deducted from its MPL kitty.
League Standings:
With its third victory in the domestic moot pool this season, Nalsar has extended its MPL lead to 81 points, comfortably ahead of NLIU Bhopal by 35 points. Next weekend, as two of India’s most prestigious and oldest moots - KLA (Constitutional Law) and DMH (International Law) take place - the question lingers: will Nalsar strengthen its lead or will others catch up?
Suggestions for MPL moot pool ugprades: Induct RGNUL, upgrade NLU Antitrust?
We have received multiple requests from the Moot Court Committee at RGNUL Patiala to include their flagship moot, currently in its 6th edition into the present MPL VII moot pool. While we are inclined to include RNMCC 2017 into the tier V category, we also invite objections, if any.
Second, the 8th edition of the NLU Antitrust Law Moot Court Competition hosted by NLU Jodhpur is presently in tier V. We are inclined to upgrade India’s most prestigious antitrust law moot to tier IV, for which we also invite objections and feedback, if any.
MPL 7 season standings
For a live and full table with all MPL results recorded so far, please click here.
| Date? | 5/2/2017 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tier? | 4 | |||
| Rank | College | Total MPL points | Itemisation of MPL points | GIMC 2017 (T4) |
| 1 | Nalsar Hyderabad | 81 | GIMC 2017 (T4): Winner (15); Best Researcher (8) | Jessup India Rounds (T3): Semi-Finalist (5) | FDI Moot (Int’l Rounds) (T5): 3rd Best Team (3); Best Speaker (5); Hon’ble Speaker Mention (3) | Rivzi Moot (T5): Winner (10) | Pro Bono Enviro Moot Court: Winner (10); Best Memorial (5) | Oxford Price Media Law Moot Court Competition (South Asia Rounds) (T3): Best Memorial (10) | BR Sawhney (T4): Organizer (2) | GNLU Securities Moot (T5): Best researcher (5) | | Winner (15); Best Researcher (8) |
| 2 | NLIU Bhopal | 46 | Jessup India Rounds (T3): Semi-Finalist (5); Best Researcher (10) | FDI Moot (Int’l Rounds) (T5): 3rd Best Claimant Memorial (3) | Oxford Price Media Law Moot Court Competition (South Asia Rounds) (T3): Runners-Up (10) | BR Sawhney (T4): Runners-up (8) | Amity International Moot Court Competition (T5): Runners-Up (5); Best Memorial (5) | | |
| 3 | GLC Mumbai | 42 | GIMC 2017 (T4): Semi-Finalist (4) | Rivzi Moot (T5): Semi-Finalist (3); Best speaker (5) | MC Chagla (T5): Win (10); Best Memo (5) | Henry Dunant (T3): Best Speaker (10) | GNLU Securities Moot (T5): Best Speaker (5) | | Semi-Finalist (4) |
| 4 | NLSIU Bangalore | 38 | K K Luthra Moot (T4): Best Memorial (8) | Oxford Price Media Law Moot Court Competition (South Asia Rounds) (T3): Winner (20) | Henry Dunant (T3): Runner-up (10) | | |
| 5 | RGNUL Patiala | 36 | Rivzi Moot (T5): Best Researcher (5) | K K Luthra Moot (T4): Runners-Up (8) | BR Sawhney (T4): Winner (15); Best Memorial (8) | | |
| 6 | NUJS Kolkata | 35 | Jessup India Rounds (T3): Best Speaker (10) | Stetson India Rounds (T3): Best Speaker (10) | Oxford Price Media Law Moot Court Competition (South Asia Rounds) (T3): Best Speaker (10) | MC Chagla (T5): Best speaker (5) | | |
| 7 | Symbiosis Law School Pune | 30 | GIMC 2017 (T4): Semi-Finalist (4); Best Memorial (8) | Jessup India Rounds (T3): Runners-Up (10) | K K Luthra Moot (T4): Semi-Finalist (4) | BR Sawhney (T4): Semi-Finalist (4) | | Semi-Finalist (4); Best Memorial (8) |
| 8 | UILS Chandigarh | 25 | Henry Dunant (T3): Win (20); Joint Best Memorial (5) | | |
| 9 | CNLU Patna | 25 | Stetson India Rounds (T3): Best Memo (10) | Amity International Moot Court Competition (T5): Winner (10); Best Researcher (5) | | |
| 10 | NLU Jodhpur | 23 | Stetson India Rounds (T3): Winners (20) | GNLU Securities Moot (T5): Semi-Finalists (3) | | |
| 11 | NLU Orissa | 20 | Jessup India Rounds (T3): Winners (20) | | |
| 12 | GNLU Gandhinagar | 18 | Pro Bono Enviro Moot Court: Best Speaker (5) | Stetson India Rounds (T3): Semi-Finalist (5) | BR Sawhney (T4): Best Speaker (8) | GNLU Securities Moot (T5): Organizer (1) | | |
| 13 | Symbiosis Noida | 15 | Stetson India Rounds (T3): Runners-Up (10) | MC Chagla (T5): Runner-up (5) | | |
| 14 | George Washington University Law School | 15 | K K Luthra Moot (T4): Winner (15) | | |
| 15 | UPES Dehradun | 10 | GNLU Securities Moot (T5): Win (10), | | |
| 16 | School of Law, Christ University | 10 | Pro Bono Enviro Moot Court: Runners-Up (5) | GNLU Securities Moot (T5): Runner-up (5) | | |
| 17 | MNLU Mumbai | 10 | Henry Dunant (T3): Best Memorial (10) | | |
| 18 | ILNU Ahmedabad | 9 | BR Sawhney (T4): Semi-Finalist (4) | Henry Dunant (T3): Joint Best Memorial (5) | | |
| 19 | Karnataka State University Law School | 8 | Pro Bono Enviro Moot Court: Semi-Finalist (3); Best Researcher (5) | | |
| 20 | RMLNLU Lukcnow | 8 | GNLU Securities Moot (T5): Best written submission (5); Semi-Finalists (3) | | |
| 21 | NUSRL Ranchi | 8 | K K Luthra Moot (T4): Best Speaker (8) | | |
| 22 | HNLU Raipur | 6 | Rivzi Moot (T5): Semi-Finalist (3) | Pro Bono Enviro Moot Court: Semi-Finalist (3) | | |
| 23 | SVKM’s NMIMS Mumbai | 5 | Amity International Moot Court Competition (T5): Best Speaker (5) | | |
| 24 | ILS Pune | 5 | Stetson India Rounds (T3): Semi-Finalist (5) | | |
| 25 | Jamia Milia Islamia Law School | 5 | Rivzi Moot (T5): Runners-Up (5) | | |
| 26 | DES’s Shri Navalmal Firodia Law College | 4 | K K Luthra Moot (T4): Semi-Finalist (4) | | |
| 27 | NLU Delhi | 2 | Oxford Price Media Law Moot Court Competition (South Asia Rounds) (T3): Organizer (2) | | |
| 28 | Sastra School of Law Thanjavur | 2 | Stetson India Rounds (T3): Organizer (2) | | |
| 29 | Amity Law School Noida | 1 | Amity International Moot Court Competition (T5): Organizer (1) | | |
| 30 | Rizvi Law College, Mumbai | 1 | Rivzi Moot (T5): Organizer (1) | | |
| 31 | SOEL Chennai | 1 | Pro Bono Enviro Moot Court: Organizer (1) | |
Comments
While we do agree with you that 9 years is a lot of time, GIMC is still a tier IV moot because the difficulty of the moot problem and other allied factors like quality of judging, quality of the participating teams etc are also factors that we take into account while creating these tiers. For Stetson and Jessup India rounds, universities tend to send far more experienced teams vis-a-vis other domestic moots, notwithstanding the fact that these domestic moots are also challenging. Also, it would be safe to argue that the moot problem would be far more challenging in the said international moots. Therefore, this essential distinction between GIMC and Stetson/Jessup/Price Media India rounds cannot be collapsed or conflated. NLSTIAM has seen teams from SMU/NUS participate consistently, but it has still not been upgraded to Tier III for the same reason. Hope this clarifies our position.
do let us know what you think though...
There is a significant difference between GIMC and Jessups/Stetson as the former caters exclusively to the International trade/WTO.Also, to the best of my knowledge, GIMC alongwith ELSA are the only moot court competitions focused on this area. It therefore, would be unfair to compare GIMC with other competitions as these are (if i can use the term) not like competitions.
As far as the unique features of GIMC are concerned, it is one of the two competitions sponsored by WTI (the other being ELSA) wherein the winning team and/or the finalist get to attend the Summer academy (ELSA winner also get the same privilege). GIMC has in the past got sitting Appellate Body members to judge the final rounds along with legal luminaries who have acted as WTO Panelist. Additionally, members from WTO secretariat and WTO have also judged the final rounds in the past. The moot problem has been drafted by authors which includes some of the leading academicians in the world; trade law practitioners etc. The prelim; quarters and semis are also judged by
practitioners/academicians who are involved with Trade law.
Lastly, as far as participation is concerned, many foreign law schools have participated in GIMC. These factors suggest that GIMC should be included in Tier 3. Moreover, if DM Harish can be included in Tier 3 (nothing against DM Harish which is an excellent competition), GIMC is as much eligible to be included in Tier 3.
Jessup, Stetson and Lachs are bigger moots. I have competed and done well internationally in two of those myself. However, the MPL points for them - added twice, for domestic and international rounds take care to maintain a distinction of doing well at those vis-a-vis GIMC. However, I do feel that GIMC is a moot that now deserves to moved a little further up in the rankings vis-a-vis its Indian contemporaries.
In the good old days, Jessup > Lachs/Stetson > DM Harish/MM Singhvi, was a more clearcut divide. I do feel that the likes of GIMC have to be slotted above the third rung mentioned above. Anyway, I believe somebody unrelated to the organizer had to initiate this discussion.
PS: NLSTIAM is another well organized moot I believe. However, I do not have any personal experience in relation to the same. As such, I didn't raise a point in relation to that.
The 10 points were actually awarded for the "Best Memorial" citation and not "Best Researcher".I apologise for the typographical error. Thank you for pointing this out.