The Monroe E. Price International Media Law Moot Court Competition
"Defending the media needs media defenders"
This moot court is organized and facilitated by Programme in Comparative Media Law & Policy at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford, part of the university's Faculty of Law, in collaboration with the International Media Lawyers Association (IMLA).
A very successful Second Edition of the Price Moot Court took place in Oxford from 18 - 21 March 2009. Teams from Malaysia, India, China, Jordan, Europe and the United States competed, and many internationally recognized media law experts acted as judges, including Judge Dean Spielmann from the European Court of Human Rights, Ms Siobhain Butterworth from The Guardian, Ms Gugu Moyo from the International Bar Association, Mr Mark Stephens from Finers Stephens Innocent and Sir Louis Blom-Cooper QC.
New: watch a video clip of the 2009 competition:
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Full details about the 2009 competition can be seen under 'previous competitions' in the menu bar.
The finals of the Third Edition of the competition will be taking place in Oxford in March 2010. This year's moot problem can be found under "Legal Framework", or go to the quick link here.
The Purpose
The purpose of the Price Moot Court Competition is to expand and stimulate an interest in Media Law and Policy among students from law and other disciplines, who will develop expertise in arguing a case before an international bench of judges from different legal systems and backgrounds.
The international nature of this competition will encourage students to gain knowledge from legal systems different from their own by carrying out comparative study and research of regional and international standards to cultivate their arguments in both writing and oral forms.
The legal framework
Participants will operate in a world where a Universal Court of Human Rights has been established to ensure the citizens of the United Nations are enjoying the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In this world, the Universal Court of Human Rights substitutes all jurisdictions of all other regional courts and becomes the final adjudicator when all national remedies have been exhausted.
Moreover a Chamber of the Universal Court of Human Rights has been established in order to deal with issues specifically addressing cases concerning Freedom of Expression as set out in Article 19 of the UDHR and when freedom of expression collides with other fundamental rights in the Declaration. The Chamber is known as the “Universal Freedom of Expression Court”.
The Case
The case will reflect principled and theoretical issues relevant to all regional and constitutional courts within the area of media law. Students will have 4 months for research and the formulation of arguments from both the applicant's and the Government's perspective, before submitting the written memorials.
The Moot Court's inspiration and spirit
The Price Moot Court was founded by Dr Danilo Leonardi, who was head of PCMLP from September 2006 - June 2008. A strong believer in the immense value of mooting, Dr Leonardi was the driving force and inspiration behind PCMLP's initiative to launch an international media law mooting competition.
The competition is named in honour of Professor Monroe E. Price, the founder of the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy at the University of Oxford's Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, in recognition of his lifelong devotion and outstanding contribution to the development of media freedom and the rule of law.
For further information about Professor Price, see http://www.upenn.edu/gazette/0507/feature3.html