The team representing the Faculty of Law and Administration of Adam Mickiewicz University achieved international success at this year’s 17th edition of the Leiden-Sarin International Air Law Moot Court Competition, held in Windhoek, Namibia. The AMU team received the Best Applicant Memorial award, granted for the best written submission on behalf of the Applicant.
The team consisted of Maciej Walewski, a second-year Master’s student in European Law and a graduate of the AMU Law programme, and Katsiaryna Shumik, a fourth-year Law student. The team represented Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań in the semi-final rounds of one of the most prestigious international moot court competitions in the field of air law. In the semi-final, the AMU team had the opportunity to face the eventual winner, McGill University, in a highly demanding and engaging round.
The team was academically supervised by its coach, Adrian Kaczmarek, MA, a PhD candidate at the Department of International Law and International Organisations of the AMU Faculty of Law and Administration. The students’ participation in the competition formed part of the activities of the International Section of the AMU Legal Clinic and was also carried out within the framework of the student ID-UB project under the Study@Research programme, entitled “The Limits of State Sovereignty over Airspace in the Context of the Development of High-Altitude Platforms and Suborbital Flights: Contemporary Challenges for International Air Law.”
This year’s competition case concerned particularly timely and demanding issues of airspace sovereignty in the context of the use of High-Altitude Platform Systems (HAPS). As part of their preparations, the participants drafted written submissions for both parties to the dispute, each exceeding 50 pages, and subsequently took part in a series of oral rounds against teams from around the world, responding to questions from judges who are distinguished experts and practitioners in air law. The competition required not only a strong command of international air law, but also the ability to develop and defend complex legal arguments in the dynamic setting of a simulated hearing before the ICJ.
As part of their participation in the event, the AMU representatives also had the opportunity to attend the 17th Leiden IIASL International Air Law Conference, traditionally organised immediately before the competition and devoted to current challenges in contemporary air law.
We congratulate the AMU Faculty of Law and Administration team on this excellent result and on receiving the award for the Best Applicant Memorial. We would also like to thank the organisers of the competition – the International Institute of Air and Space Law (IIASL), Leiden University, the Sarin Memorial Legal Aid Foundation, and this year’s host, the University of Namibia – for organising the competition and for their warm hospitality in Windhoek.
