Jindal Global Law School winners of prestigious 7th edition of the Monroe Price Media Law Moot Court Competition

The winners in the finals of the International Rounds of the Price Media Law Moot Court Competition hosted by the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford is a team from the Jindal Global Law School of the O.P. Jindal Global University in Sonipat, comprising of students Mohana Krishna C., BaniBrar and RonakTalati. The students of Jindal Global Law School won against the team from the University of Oxford in the finals; Queen Mary University in the semi-finals and Singapore Management University in the quarter-finals to have achieved this feat.

Teams from around the world participated in the competition which is a global initiative of the Programme in Comparative Media Law & Policy (PCMLP) at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, a research and policy programme, which brings together scholars, policymakers and practitioners to study modern-day issues in global media law and policy. Professor Monroe E. Price and StefaanVerhulst founded the Price Media Law Moot Court Programme in the year 1996, with a grant from the Markle Foundation and the cooperation of the Howard M. Squadron Program in Law, Media, and Society at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York.

From 1- 4 April, 2014 35 teams gathered in Oxford for the 7th edition of the International Rounds of the Monroe Price Media Law Moot Court Competition. The competition was represented by various countries, which included the USA, Brazil, India, Egypt, Qatar, Singapore, Croatia, Greece, Kenya and Australia among others. Two new regional rounds (East Africa and China) through the past year were added in the competition. A case concerning the legal safeguards for journalists’ vis-à-vis non-professional news disseminators, on-line privacy, data protection and Internet regulation was argued by the participants before highly qualified benches of internationally recognized academics, practitioners and lawyers from the media and ICT industries serving as judges.

India’s Jindal Global Law School – winners of the Regional Rounds in South Asia this year – and the University of Oxford after three days of fervent arguments, emerged as the two finalists over a list of teams who qualified for the advanced rounds that included Brooklyn Law School (USA), Hugh Wooding Law School (Trinidad & Tobago), University of Technology of Sydney (Australia), Queen Mary University of London (UK), Singapore Management University and China University of Political Science and Law in the quarter-finals.

The finals bench was chaired by Justice Elsie Thompson Nwanwuri of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights and comprised Mr Desmond Browne QC, MrXiongshanCai of Tencent, Mr Mark Stephens CBE and Ms Gill Phillips of the Guardian. After the oralists of the two teams used their most sophisticated arguments, the eminent judges declared the team from India the overall winners of the competition.Last year the Price Media moot world rounds trophy was won by NLU Delhi, while Nalsar, Hyderabad was the one to win it in the year 2012.

Overall Winner:

Jindal Global Law School, Sonipat, India

Overall Runner-up:

University of Oxford, UK

Semi-Finalists (in alphabetical order):

Brooklyn Law School, New York City, USA
Queen Mary University of London, UK

Quarter Finalists (in alphabetical order):

China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing, China
Hugh Wooding Law School, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
Singapore Management University, Singapore
University of Technology, Sydney, Australia

Octa Finalists (in alphabetical order):

Amity Law School, Delhi, India
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Florida International University College of Law, Miami FL, USA
University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia
University of Nairobi, Kenya
University of Nis, Serbia
University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
University of Zagreb, Croatia

Best Oralists:

1. MsJamesina McLeod, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia 2. MrMuktaBalroop, Hugh Wooding Law School, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago 3.MsRamya Chandrasekhar, National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata, India 4. MsJelenaJankovic, University of Nis, Serbia 5. MsGiovana Felix Teodoro, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil 6. MrLitrowHickson, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica 7. Ms. Modesta Apesa Chungalao, University of the Philippines, Philippines 8 ex aequo.       Mr Edward Chen, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia 8 ex aequo.       Mr Jonathan Railey, Florida International University College of Law, Miami FL, USA 10. MsSylmarie Trujillo, Florida International University College of Law, Miami FL, USA

Best Oralist in the Final:

Mr Paul Lau, University of Oxford, UK

Best Memorials:

University of Zagreb, Croatia

Best Memorials – Runner-up:

University of Nairobi, Kenya

Other Participating Teams:

Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt Belarusian State University, Minsk, Belarus Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, New York City, USA Communication University of China, Beijing, China Elon University School of Law, USA Lahore University of Management Studies, Pakistan Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda MARA University of Technology, Shah Alam, Malaysia National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ukraine Qatar University, Doha, Qatar Shandong University, China Tsinghua University, China United Arab Emirates University, UAE University of Colombo, Sri Lanka University of the Philippines, Philippines University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica