Law Students Compete in Human Rights

The fifth Moot Court Competition, organised by Civil Rights Defenders, will be held in Orhid, Macedonia. Law students from ten clubs in six countries (Macedonia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Serbia and Croatia) will receive training in the procedures of the European Court of Human Rights between 15–17 April.

This is a unique opportunity for law students to be trained in human rights law. Since the first competition, held in spring 2007, about 280 law students have participated.

Moot Court is organised as a competition, and five judges from the European Court in Strasbourg will sit on the jury. Also, Percy Bratt, lawyer and Chair of the Board of Civil Rights Defenders, Ove Bring, Professor of International Law, Olle Asplund, lawyer and Goran Miletic, acting Program Director for Western Balkans at Civil Rights Defenders, will participate. In addition to these, young lawyers from Belgrade and Kosovo will be present for observational purposes.

Several of the former participants have been offered jobs within the European Court, and many universities are planning to include the European Court procedures as a course in their curriculum, as a result of our efforts so far. The Union Law School in Belgrade has already introduced the topic.