Team Rijeka Wins the Moot Court Competition

The team from University of Rijeka, Croatia, has won this year’s edition of the Moot Court competition in the Western Balkans. The competition was held April 24-26 in Kotor, Montenegro and ten teams participated. This was the third time a team from Croatia won the competition.

“We are very satisfied and surprised to win. There were other excellent teams among our competitors. I think we won because we had the best arguments and presented them according to the procedures in the European Court of Human Rights. We did not introduce any new evidence or facts to the case,” said Masha Masochini, trainer for the Rijeka team.

This was the third edition of the Moot Court competition, arranged by the Swedish Helsinki Committee and the organisation Young Lawyers of Serbia. Judges from high courts in the region and three judges from Strasbourg participated and a total of ten teams from Macedonia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Serbia and Croatia were competing against each other in this year’s competition.

“This competition means a lot for our faculty. Only two years ago we introduced courses in human rights and the European Convention for Human Rights for the first time,” said Masochini.

The Moot Court competition gives the students, but also the local judges, increased knowledge regarding the European Convention and practical knowledge of rules and procedures in the European Court. Few law faculties in the Western Balkans have courses in international law, or specifically in the European Convention or the European Court. Above all there is a lack of practical exercises. Even among judges and law professors the practical knowledge of the European Convention and the European Court is relatively low.