Moot Court Competition Growing Increasingly Popular

Twelve hard working teams from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia competed in this years Moot Court competition. After  two days of oral pleadings before a demanding panel of judges from national courts and the European Court of Human Rights, the team “Vladimir Bayer” from the Law Faculty of the University of Zagreb was declared winner.

The increase in use of the European Court of Human Rights among new legal practitioners is instrumental in improving the overall human rights situation in the region. Civil Rights Defenders hopes not only to increase knowledge about the European Court of Human Rights and human rights of future legal practitioners but also to strengthen the cooperation among educational and judicial institutions in the region.

It is an appreciated complement to the formal law studies curricula in the region. Most of the law schools in the region do not have any courses in the European Convention of Human Rights, or in the procedures of the European Court of Human Rights.

“With an increased use of the European Convention for Human Rights, we believe that people’s rights will be better respected and the risk of new conflicts will decrease,” said Goran Miletic, Programme Director for the Western Balkans at Civil Rights Defenders.

The Moot Court Competition is part of Civil Rights Defenders educational work and is increasingly popular and we had the highest number of judges so far. This years competition was held in Sarajevo, between 20-22 April.