NUJS Kolkata scored a major win at the funding rounds for the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot, defeating the hosts NLSIU Bangalore, giving both teams huge boosts in the Mooting Premier League (MPL) rankings.
This Tier 3 win gifts NUJS a further 10 points to move into seventh place of the MPL and moves NUJS into the top eight MPL ranks that have been sponsored by Clifford Chance with cash prizes.
The NUJS team comprised of Kumar Ashutosh, Nivedita Sen and Jay Sanklecha.
NUJS defeated the home team of NLSIU Bangalore in the finals but NLSIU also bagged the best memorial prize in the event and therefore gained a total of 14 points from the event.
With this win NLS is now on 92 points which is only a whisker 2 points behind MPL second placed NLU, Jodhpur.
The current runaway MPL league leader also managed to extract points from this event, with Nalsar Hyderabad speaker Abhilaksh Grover picking up the best orator citation for 7 points.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) domestic funding rounds have been organised since 2004 for teams to secure funding to travel to the Asia Pacific rounds of the Manfred Lachs Space Moot.
The funding rounds do not automacially qualify teams for the world rounds of the event, with mooters first having to pass the Asia Pacific selection rounds which will be held from 13 to 17 April 2010 in Sydney, Australia.
The winner of this round will qualify for the world finals from 28 to 30 September, 2010 in Prague, Czech Republic.
NLSIU won the Manfred Lachs world rounds last year for an early lead in the current MPL season. Nalsar overtook NLSIU at the beginning of this year, and apart from the latter’s brief retaliation, Nalsar has since dominated the MPL since with a string of victories.
The MPL is sponsored by Clifford Chance and the top eight ranked law colleges will share a generous prize fund of Rs 1.5 lakhs provided by the firm. We are currently getting final confirmation of the honourable mentions at the international rounds of the Philip C. Jessup Moot. Any major citations of teams will be classed as honourable mentions, worth 10 points.
2009-10 Mooting Premier League rankings, sponsored by Clifford Chance
| Law school | Points | Wins | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Nalsar Hyderabad | 149 | IICLAM (best memorial); Henry Dunant Indian rounds (runners-up); Surana Trial Advocacy South (best team, best memorial); Nani Palkhiwala (best memorial), Bar Council of India (best team); KK Luthra (runners-up, best speaker); NLIU Tankha (runners-up, best memo); MM Singhvi (best memo); Jessup South (runner-up); DM Harish (best researcher); Surana Corporate (best team, best memorial); SP Sathe (best team, best orator); KLA Moot (runners up); NUJS Herbert Smith (best team, best memorial); Surana Int’l Tech Moot (best memorial); Amity Moot (runners up, best orator, best memorial, best researcher); Philip C Jessup (semi-finalist); ISRO Manfred Lachs funding rounds (best orator) |
| 2. | NLU Jodhpur | 94 | | | Nalsar B.R.Sawhney (runners-up, best memorial); Stetson North (best team, best memorial); Jessup North (best team, best orator); Surana Corporate (runners up, best orator); SP Sathe (best memorial); KLA Moot (best team, best orator); NUJS Herbert Smith (runners-up); Surana Int’l Tech Moot (best orator); Amity Moot (best team); Stetson International (5th & 6th best orator) | |
| --- | |||
| 3. | NLSIU Bangalore | 92 | Manfred Lachs (best team, best orator); Stetson South (best advocate), Bar Council of India (best orator); KK Luthra (best memorial); MM Singhvi (best researcher); Jessup South (best team, best orator); KLA Moot (best memorial); I |
| 4. | School of Excellence in Law (SOEL) Chennai | 43 | Henry Dunant Indian rounds (best team, best orator), NLIU Tankha (best orator); Nani Palkhiwala (best team); Red Cross Asia Pacific (semi-finalist; honourable mention best memorial) |
| 5. | ILS Law College Pune | 31 | Bar Council of India (runners-up); DM Harish (runners-up); NUJS Herbert Smith (best speaker); Surana International Tech Moot (best team); ULC Bangalore Moot (best team) |
| 6. | NLIU Bhopal | 29 | All India Corporate Law Moot (runners-up, best orator); Nalsar B.R.Sawhney (best team, best orator); Stetson South (best memorial); MM Singhvi (runners-up) |
| 7. | NUJS Kolkata | 28 | All India Corporate Law Moot (best team, best researcher); Willem C Vis Hong Kong (honorable mention); I |
| 8. | Government Law College (GLC) Mumbai | 26 | KK Luthra (best team); MM Singhvi (best team); DM Harish (best orator, best memorial) |
| 9. | Amity Law School IP University Delhi | 25 | IICLAM (best team & best orator); Stetson North (runner-up), Jessup North (best memorial) |
| 10. | Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law (RGNUL) Patiala | 18 | Henry Dunant national rounds (best researcher); NLIU Tankha (best team); ULC Bangalore Moot (Best Memorial) |
| 11. | GNLU Gandhinagar | 17 | IICLAM (runners-up); ELSA WTO Asia (runners-up, best orator) |
| 12. | Law Centre I (LC-I) Delhi University | 14 | Henry Dunant Indian rounds (best memorial), Jessup North (runner-up) |
| 12. | Symbiosis, Pune | 14 | Nani Palkhiwala (runners up, best orator); GNLU International Moot Court (runners up); ULC Bangalore Moot (runners-up) |
| 14. | Nuals Kochi | 13 | Surana Trial Advocacy North (runners-up); Jessup South (best memorial); Surana International Tech Moot (runners up) |
| 15. | University Institute of Laws PURC, Ludhiana | 11 | Surana trial advocacy north rounds (best team, best orator) |
| 16. | Law School, Bangalore | 10 | ULC Bangalore Moot (best orator, best researcher) |
| 16. | Kerala Law Academy Thiruvananthapuram | 10 | Stetson South (best team) |
| 16. | NLU Delhi | 10 | DM Harish (best team) |
| 19. | UILS Punjab | 8 | Surana Trial advocacy South (runners up, best orator) |
| 20. | HNLU Raipur | 7 | Stetson North (best orator) |
| 20. | New Law College Bharati Vidyapeeth University Pune | 7 | Stetson South (runner-up) |
| 22. | CNLU Patna | 5 | GNLU International Moot (best memorial) |
| 22. | Government Law College Ernakulam | 5 | MM Singhvi (best orator) |
| 22. | Institute of Law, Nirma University, Ahmedabad | 5 | Surana Trial Advocacy North (best memorial) |
| 22. | ULC Bangalore | 5 | All India Corporate Law Moot (best memorial) |
| 26. | Campus Law Centre Delhi | 3 | SP Sathe (runners up) |
Click here for an updated (February 2010) list of the scoring criteria we are using.
Comments
Great going NLS!! its going to be a close finish for the second slot. NLU buck up guys.
I presume it will be tough to upstage NALSAR this season. It is miles ahead of the rest of the law schools. Awesome work, proud of you guys.
and NUJS is performing at a much larger scale, at the international level, where few Indian law schools are performing.
hahahaha! Partying place eh? That's why mint ranked in no. 1 in India in terms of pedagogic systems and processes? Stop making uninformed, loose comments.
Maybe you have not seen what NUJS is doing. Its 5th year students are running their own LPOs (note the words 'running their OWN LPOs), its 4th year students are launching their CLAT preparation platforms and the very recent thing...the project to increasing diversity in law schools. Amazing!
NUJS's location is its biggest advantage. People don't die of depression here...they study hard and enjoy their best years of life here.
Hope NUJS repeats the tenth Vis.
NUJS team lost to Ottawa in the Quarter finals of Vis. Ms. Iram Huq bagged an honourable Mention as an oralist. Though we at NUJS are sad Vis10 could not be repeated we are really proud of this performance. While NUJS may not bag enough points in the league by winning all the tiny national moots (we dont even participate in most of them), we are doing well in the big moots (read Vienna, ELSA and Hong Kong).
It is really disappointing that the league does not award points for quarter finalists in moots like Vienna and Jessup and treats these achievements as inferior to winning the smallest of national moots. Without taking anything away from the credit of any team in the league let me quote a mooter from NUJS "The league values hunting ten rabbits and stringing them on a string. NUJS mooting is about hunting one tiger and not a hundred rabbits"
MPL needs a complete revision of scoring criteria for it to reflect the true performance of teams.
having said that, in context of that interesting comment regarding rabbits and tigers, i also have to respectfully point out that a more accurate state of affairs is that nujs has aimed at tigers and landed wildcats. [When you WIN these moots, you can make tiger-rabbit comparisons. :-) ]
Still, as i said, (s)he makes a valid point. It's a major achievement making it to the quarters in moots like these; the MPL's standards have to be realistic.
my congratulations to nujs.
@ nujs
nujs! unleash the fury next year! let us take on more moots and make the critics eat a foot or two.
@ others
don't be quick to judge. NUJS is still way ahead, far more than what a goddamn table would show you. :-)
no discredit to the board-leaders, but the table represents everything nujs teaches you to be against. a rat race. we'll settle for a few wins less, if there's something else more valuable to be learned out there.
@ # 4
so that's all academics is to you then? mooting?
No pride at being the top-most Indian team at Vis Vienna, the only Indian team to get any award at Vis Hong Kong, and semi-finalist in WTO regionals? Not to mention winning the funding rounds of Lachs.
I have not heard of so many major achievements from NUJS in a single year, in the past few years.
Although, correct me if I'm wrong.. I've not been deeply in touch with NUJS mooting for a while now.
I, for one, would have been proud in your place.
"When you have won them..."
Yes, NUJS has won them for your kind information. Which other law school in India has won either of the Vis moots? NUJS has won both. Not to mention the two Stetson wins and a plethora of historic achievements I can't even recall in one sitting. Just because these does not happen on an yearly basis, please do not undermine NUJS. Winning Vis does not happen every year or Vis would not be Vis. But NUJS has the most consistant performance at Vis for among Indian teams and one of the most consistant performances in the world (won the moot the first time it participated, reached the advanced rounds every year it participated, reached octas and secured two honourable mentions last year, reached quarters and got an honourable mention this year).
While not too many performances from NUJS qualify as a "win" a lot of them do count way more than most of the "wins" credited with points in the league.
calm down. :-)
About mooting legacy. Yes we do recognise the consistant performance of NLS in Jessup. But when was the last time NLS made it to round of 64 in Vienna? I think it was as long back in the past as when NUJS last made it to the internationals of Jessup. So let us pursue our respective legacies with mutual respect and dignity than belittle each other here.
I dont think pointing out a false claim made by NLS in a moot invite implies any level of obsession.
I think what #12 was trying to say was that while it is absolutely commendable that NUJS has achieved so much in all those international moots, it's a little odd that they don't participate in as many domestic moots. Considering that this is probably the first year that we have a points table to refer to, the mooting achievements of all law schools are before us to see. Sure, other law schools (barring a few) may not be winning the 'big' moots in as many numbers, but their total wins seem to outnumber the wins by NUJS.
One can always take the 'quality over quantity' argument when it comes to NUJS. But, let's not forget what we have the moots for. Under no circumstances can a law school afford to ignore so many moots in a year, many of which are quality moots. When this trend seems to have consolidated itself into a matter of 'policy', there is every reason to be cautious. I think in the end, it is the student body which suffers. Besides, let the competition get more intense and let other law schools also have to work harder for their wins in the domestic moots! Participation doesn't hurt. Even sending junior teams to these moots would give some sort of an exposure to the students, which is always good.
By the way, any other year, NUJS would also have had many many more domestic moot wins to gloat about. Also, the number of domestic moots have also gone up over the fast few years. Other law schools participate in the new moots, why can't NUJS?
On another note, NUJS seems to be taking the lead when it comes to non-mooting co-curricular / extra-curricular activities. This, clubbed with the recent mooting achievements, would suggest that it's been a good year at NUJS.
i dun think points have been awarded for that.