Prestigious J.H.Jackson Moot Court Competition takes off at UPSA

The Africa Round of the Internationally known John Jackson moot court competition has taken off at the UPSA.

This year's round features 16 teams from seven(7) African countries including Ghana.

The opening ceremony held yesterday at KOK Auditorium at UPSA saw representatives from the J.H Jackson foundation and the WTO encouraging participants and educating them on likely opportunities in store for them.

Today, we will witness the first preliminary rounds followed by the second round on Friday, March 10.

On Saturday, the event will be crowned with the semi-finals, finals and the closing ceremony at the UPSA and the Labadi Beach Hotel respectively.

Background

The contest, organized by the European Law Students Association and the World Trade Organisation(WTO), is the biggest moot court competition on WTO Law in the world.

The John H. Jackson Moot Court Competition is an international moot court competition on WTO law and takes place every year, with its first edition dating back to 2002. 

It was formerly known as ELSA Moot Court Competition on WTO but was renamed in 2018 after the American professor of law John Howard Jackson.

The competition is structured into six regional rounds all over the world and a final oral round in which around 25 selected teams take part. Each edition of the moot court hosts around one hundred teams constituted of two to four law students.

Added to the above, the competition simulates a hearing of the WTO dispute settlement system with the teams preparing and analyzing a fictitious case created by specialists in WTO Law and presenting their arguments for both the Complainant and the Respondent.