From 24 February to 1 March 2023, the 21st Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition was successfully held online. 57 law school teams from China competed fiercely. After a fierce competition, Wuhan University team defeated the other four opponents in the group stage, successfully advanced to the knockout stage of the top 16 and won the national first prize. Jin Jing, an undergraduate student of the class of 2019 from law school, was awarded the title of Best Oralist with the tenth place.

 The team representing Wuhan University to participate in the Jessup Competition was established in September 2022 with the support of the Law School and the Wuhan University Institute of International Law. Professor Gao Shengti from the Institute of International Law served as the mentor, and Zhao Sihan, a 2021 PhD student from the Law School, and Liang Leting, a 2022 PhD student from the Law School, served as the student coaches. The team members included Chen Yulin, a 2022 graduate student majoring in international law, Jin Jing, a 2019 undergraduate student, Xia Bingxue, a 2021 undergraduate student, Zhao Jianghan, a 2021 undergraduate student from Hongyi Experimental Classes, and Liu Xinyi, a 2022 graduate student majoring in international law. Among them, Chen Yulin and Jin Jing participated in the oral debate as players.

    As the world's oldest and largest international moot court competition, the Jessup International Law Moot Court is known as the "Olympic Competition" in the field of international law. This year's national competition attracted 57 prestigious law schools, including Peking University, Tsinghua University, Fudan University, Renmin University of China and Shanghai Jiaotong University. This year's competition set two countries on the peninsula, Aglovale and Ragnell, in dispute over the breach of their tripartite obligations to uphold the peace treaty. The competition focused on the legality and limits of the exercise of the right of self-defence by non-state actors, the treatment of prisoners of war and international humanitarian law, the legality of unilateral economic sanctions, the duty of care in transboundary movements of hazardous waste and other relevant cutting-edge issues in international law, integrating the basic theories of international law from multiple sectors and topical international issues. During the competition, oralists are required to use English and accordance with the proceedings of the International Court of Justice. In general, the Jessup is extremely difficult not only because of the depth and breadth of the searches required, but also because the debaters have to "talk" to the judges and explain specific legal issues.

     The Wuhan University team held weekly readings during the summer vacation to read classics of international law before the questions of the competition were released. In the nearly half a year after the release of the questions of the competition, our school team prepared for the International Court of Justice simulation case designed for the competition by reviewing a large number of relevant international law cases, writings and doctrines. The team members not only devoted themselves to digging into international law theories and comparable precedents, but also built a logical and consistent system by combining cutting-edge hot issues in the forefront of the international community and gaining insights from the perspective of facts, which laid a solid foundation for the writing and oral arguments. To ensure the progress of preparation, the team members overcame difficulties such as the impact of the epidemic and the conflict between final exams and the competition, and insisted on conducting oral argumentation training every day, spending an intense and fulfilling winter holiday.

    ‘A time will come to ride the wind and cleave the waves; I'll set my cloud-white sail and cross the sea which rave.’ The persistent efforts of the team members finally led to a rewarding competition. In the preliminary competition, our school team performed well. With solid knowledge of international law, fluent English expression ability and flexible response ability, our school team was recognized and praised by the judge for many times. With four wins, the team ranked 12th and advanced to the knockout round of 16. In the 16-8 competition, our school team encountered China University of Political Science and Law, the third place in the domestic selection competition. The CUPL team represented Aglovale as the attorney for the plaintiff in court. In the face of continuous questioning by the judge, Chen Yulin and Jin Jing remained calm and responded to the questions clearly. Although we lost by a narrow margin, it has fully demonstrated the Legal literacy and Literature retrieval ability of our school team and won the national first prize. At the same time, Jin Jing won the Best Oralist and ranked 10th among the 20 best debaters in China. Although it was a little regrettable that our team has not entered the international competition, our school team became more and more brave in each competition and gradually got better. The discussion with the judge on the competition question produced a spark of thinking, which benefited the team members a lot and made them realize the lack of legal search depth, interdisciplinary knowledge reserve and courtroom argument skills.

    The success of our team in this competition is inseparable from the strong support of the Wuhan University School Of Law, Wuhan University Academy of International Law and Global Governance, and Wuhan University Institute of International Law. We sincerely thank Vice President Deng Zhaohui, Professor Su Jinyuan, Professor Gao Shengti, Professor Feng Jiehan, and Professor Huang Zhixiong for their support and guidance. Thanks to Ms. Yan Qian, Ms. Chen Panpan, Ms. Yu Yi and Ms. Wei Fei for guaranteeing the competition and the venue during the epidemic period. In addition, we would like to thank previous Jessup members Li Jenny, Zhu Junjie, Zhu Ziyi, Zhang Yujun, Yang Haning and other predecessors and partners for our school team oral debate training to give a lot of help.

  ‘The road ahead will be long and our climb will be steep’. Although this competition has come to an end, but the team members have more than just a few steps to explore the halls of international law. We hope that more Law students will actively participate in the Jessup Moot Court and work together to create higher glory.