Written by: David J Devlaeminck
Edited by: LIU Chun & HUANG Hui
On the evening of 1 March 2023, the Jessup China Organising Committee announced the winners of the 2023 Jessup International Law Moot Court China Division. Competing against 57 teams, Chongqing University (CQU) was ranked eighth place in the national preliminary round and took home the national first prize. Furthermore, one of our team’s oralists, Yiyang Xie, gave an outstanding performance and was ranked as the fourth best oralist. CQU has won the first prize in the China National Rounds annually since 2019, taking home the first prize five years in a row.
(National best oralist rankings, including Yiyang Xie of Chongqing University)
The Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition was held online in China from 24 February to 1 March 2023. As the "Olympics of international law", the Jessup Competition is the largest, oldest and most difficult moot court competition in the world, attracting more than 600 universities from over 100 countries and regions worldwide every year. CQU oalists have demonstrated solid legal skills, meticulous logic and excellent English skills, and played steadily at a high level in the four preliminary rounds.
The Jessup Team of CQU is led by Associate Professor Qian Hou as coach and Associate Professor David J. Devlaeminck as adviser, and consists of undergraduate team members including Yanyang Cheng, Yiyang Xie and Yujie Ling (4th year LLB) and Xinyue Zheng and Ying Li (3rd year LLB).
(Group photo: first row from left to right: Ying Li, Yujie Ling, Yanyang Cheng; second row from left to right: Xinyue Zheng, Yiyang Xie)
In the past seven years, the Jessup team of CQU has won six first prizes in the domestic competition and the first place of Hardy C. Dillard Award for Best Combined Memorials in 2021. These achievements and breakthroughs would not have been possible without the support of the university, the guidance of the coaches, the hard work of the team members and the care and attention from our Law School Community. The Jessup team of CQU will continue to breakthrough and explore the field of international law with a rigorous academic attitude, a determined spirit of exploration and a team spirit of solidarity.
