“If blackening of one’s name is the price for there to be a proper space law moot court competition, then I shall pay it,” declared former Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Asia Pacific regional organiser Ricky Lee in an fiery public statement. A little while later he set up a rival space law moot promising to eclipse the original.

Legally India’s team MPL looks behind the scenes of the spat and the future of the Manfred Lachs and other space law competitions.