Previous Competitions - International Rounds in Oxford

The International Rounds in Oxford are the cornerstone of the Price Media Law Moot Court Programme and are now in their fifth year. The competition is known for its wide range of students and judges attending the competition from all over the world. The 2011 competition included 150 students from 28 law schools and 19 different countries, including teams from China, Ukraine, Nigeria, Kenya, India, Singapore, Jordan, Pakistan, Georgia, and Korea. In some cases, the students, coaches and judges deal with issues that are rarely debated or discussed in their own countries.

The competition consistently attracts some of the most prominent figures in the field of media law, including Richard Winfield, former head of the World Press Freedom Committee, Mark Stephens, and the distinguished British solicitor on media claims, Jonathan Blake, a leading media lawyer from Covington and Burling, and the Dutch judge Willem Korthes Altes, among many others. Many of these individuals have gone beyond judging the competition and have contributed their time and expertise to the growth of the Price Media Law Moot Court Programme. The 2011 bench for the finals was chaired by Judge Nina Vajic (European Court of Human Rights) and comprised Justice Michael Tugendhat (High Court of England and Wales), Professor Timothy Endicott (Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Oxford), Gavin Millar QC (Doughty Street Chambers), Peter Rees QC (Head of Legal at Shell International BV) and Harjinder Obhi (Google's Senior Litigation Counsel for Europe, Middle East and Africa).

The Purpose

Oxford's freedom of expression moot court competition expands and stimulates an interest in Media Law and Policy among students, who will develop expertise in arguing a case before an international bench of judges from different legal systems and backgrounds.

Participants that come to serve as judges, including actual judges, academics, members of advocacy organizations and practicing lawyers, are required to familiarize themselves with the issues at hand before they adjudicate.The international nature of this competition encourages all involved 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 in the International rounds held in Oxford 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”. Participants in the regional moot courts, or qualifying rounds, are encouraged to draw on domestic law when formulating their arguments.