Lessons From my Experience at the IHL Moot Competition

By the time you are reading this, you have most likely applied to be a participant in the IHL Moot Competition organised by the ICRC. That’s nice. Things have changed. It did not use to be like this in the past. In the past, it was the faculty that submitted names of their representatives to the ICRC. And only schools that were invited could participate. 10 schools were invited every year. Obafemi Awolowo University, the school I attended was always invited. How will they not invite Great Ife? You know now! So, they invite 10 schools and each school comes with a lecturer who is a coach. The lecturer will also be a judge at the competition. Teams are paired. Every school presents like 3 times. Then, the top 4 schools go to the semi-final. Then, 2 schools to the final. Then, one wins.

Then, Covid happened and it changed everything. The ICRC changed the format of the competition because covid protocols forbid having too many people at a place. It became an individual competition. Multiple teams from a university can apply. Every team has to submit a written submission in order to qualify. I do not know if the ICRC would pick more than a team from a school. But they will be picking just 4 teams. No lecturer from any participating school would be a judge.

You should be motivated to win. If you qualify, they will give you money just for coming. They will sponsor your flight from wherever you are coming. For us, they paid our transport fair from Ife to Ibadan. Then, paid for our flights to Abuja, to and fro. The hotel was very nice and the meals were excellent. It’s ‘’serve yourself’’. If you win the national rounds, they will sponsor your trip to wherever the international round is being held. They will also give you money for going. The lodging is excellent and the meals are superb. Though, I was unable to eat the Kenyan meals. I am a bush boy from Ibadan. The point is that the ICRC is excellent when it comes to hosting competition. They are very good. Ask all previous participants.

Writing the memorial

There was a limit on word count for the memorial (written submission) during our time. The limit was 2000 words. That means you don’t need to tell unnecessary stories – the type of unnecessary stories at the beginning of this essay, you don’t need it at all. Go straight to the point.

You have been given facts with no issues for determination. You would have to make out issues. Read the facts. Research on the applicable law. Delineate your issues and argue. Read the Rome Statute very well. Check which provisions of the Rome Statute have been breached or likely to have been breached. Check for other IHL treaties (such as the Geneva conventions etc) that have been breached. Now, you have to be careful. Check the facts. They will tell you what treaties the states have signed. So, if you cite treaties that the states have not signed, that might be problematic.

Also, you should download Elements of Crime. It is an ICC document that lists all the elements of crimes under the Rome Statute. You should also download commentaries. Just go online and search for ‘’Cases and Commentaries on the Rome Statute’’. You should also download this app: IHL – International Humanitarian Law. It is an app made by the ICRC. It contains all ICRC treaties and there are cases on a lot of IHL principles. It would really help.

After you have read the treaties and you know what provisions were breached, you start arguing. For the prosecution memorial, you argue that the defendants have breached those provisions. You list out all the elements and state how those elements have been breached. For the defence memorial, you argue that the defendant has not breached those provisions because some elements have not been fulfilled.

Most of the elements of crime under the Rome Statute are the same. So, it will save you a lot of time. Out of 5 elements, 3 elements are the same under Article 6(c) & 6(d). Just 2 elements are different. So, if you have argued all the elements for the breach of article 6(c), you don’t need to go and argue everything for the breach of article 6(d). You could state that you rely on your arguments that have been made on that point in the previous paragraph. The, you make arguments on the other 2 elements. Let me quote a part of our memorial: ''As to the?third and fourth elements, the prosecution relies on?the arguments canvassed in this regard in the previous paragraphs.''

Also, do a diligent work in classifying the conflict. It could be an international armed conflict or a non-international armed conflict. I learnt there could also be an internationalised non-international armed conflict. That’s your cup of tea. But don’t stress yourself too much. It’s between an international armed conflict and a non-international armed conflict. That is what would form the arguments for jurisdiction.

Again, don’t tell stories. Instead of saying that: ‘’In the case of Arsenal v. Chelsea (NWLR), the court held that Arsenal is a useless club.’’, just state that ‘’Arsenal is a useless club’’. Then you put ‘’Arsenal v. Chelsea (NWLR)’’ in the footnote. Footnotes are not part of the word count. So, that will save you words. By the way, I am an Arsenal fan even though I don’t watch football. Ronaldo is the GOAT. If you believe Messi is the GOAT, you should not be benefiting from this article.

Lastly, ask previous winners for their memorials. Myself and Israel worked with a sample memorial. So, work with a template.

Presenting

One of the reasons we won last year was not because we were better presenters. It was because we were more spontaneous. Myself and Israel were very lazy as it concerns the preparation for this competition. In fact, the only 2 times we did real rehearsals was when Professor Oyelade (our coach) said he wanted to hear our arguments. Asides those 2 times, we would just casually pick our memorials and check them out. I even wrote out my arguments in court when the other sides were presenting, though I knew my arguments quite well. So, learn to be spontaneous. By the way, exam was around the corner. That was why. Now, let us go into the details.

It is when you qualify that they will give you the issues for determination. It is very possible that the issues that they give you fall outside what you wrote in your memorial that you submitted. So, you may have to start preparing new arguments after you qualify. However, whatever issues you are given, it cannot be radically different from what you already have in your memorial. That is if you did a good job. You won’t even qualify if you didn’t write well.

Another problem is that you would not be told what issues you will be presenting on until 5 – 10 minutes before the court sits. That is when you also pick the ballot for prosecution or defence. So, that is why spontaneity matters a lot. We were given 4 issues. In the semi-finals, we presented on the first and third issues. In the final rounds, we presented on the second and fourth issues. It will be a mistake if you assume the issues for different rounds. I believe some of our colleagues from other schools already shared the issue. So, the lead counsel picked the first issue and the co-counsel picked the second issue. The lead counsel picked the third issue and the co-counsel picked the fourth issue. So, it became a problem when the first and third issues were selected to be the issues for the first round. However, we foresaw that problem already. Israel being the lead counsel prepared for the first, second and third issues. Being the co-counsel, I prepared for the second, third and fourth issues. So, we were not shocked when they stated the issues for each round.

We answered the questions of the judges quite well. We were defendant in both rounds. By the time we were arguing, we had listened to the arguments of our opponents. So, during our arguments, we rebutted their points. I mean that we heard the argument in the courtroom, wrote rebuttals right there and incorporated it in our argument right there. And we did it without stuttering. That is actually nothing special and I am not trying to be modest. We are spontaneous. Don’t mind me. By now, you should know that OAU students are proud. And it’s because we are good. Our pride is not based on vanity.

After winning

We won! The first question that the co-ordinator of the competition asked us was whether we had international passports. I believe they were going to pay for it if we didn’t have. But we had. You should have an international passport. It is difficult to get and getting it before your trip outside Nigeria might be dangerous. You might not get it on time. You should also get a yellow card. That is a document that certifies that you have received the yellow fever vaccine. The doctor that did it for us collected N6000. But I learnt that he duped us because it costs around N1000.

The International Rounds

You will be in Tanzania or Kenya for 5 days. It used to be in Tanzania. But covid protocols did not let them do it in Tanzania last year. So, it was held in Kenya.

You will receive a moot fact totally different from the one you used in the national rounds. But it will be relevant mainly for the finals which would be held on the last day. Just some paragraphs would be relevant on the first 4 days.

For the first four days, you will receive lectures in the morning and have a competition in the afternoon. The lectures will be on different aspects of IHL. In the afternoon, you will have the competition which will be based on what you were taught in the morning. You will receive instructions for the competition 90 minutes before the competition.

The competition in the first 4 days will not be a moot. They will give you instructions. You could be representatives of the government appearing before an international committee. The other side opposing you could be representatives of an NGO campaigning that war crimes have been committed. You might not even have opponents. But you will be speaking to panels addressing them on a particular area of law. On the fourth day, the schools that qualify for the semi-finals would be announced. The semi-finals would be held in the morning, on the last day with no classes. It would also be appearance before a panel. The finalists would be announced on that day. The final round is a moot. The moot fact that you are given on the first day will now be fully relevant.

You argue on that day. So, you have to be spontaneous. Then, the winners are announced.

You would meet a lot of people from different countries. They all listen to Nigerian songs. So, they will like you if you sing some Nigerian songs. You would also get to learn the cultures of other Africans and you would realise that Africans are largely the same. Part of the introduction ceremony had each team make a cultural presentation. We sang Wizkid and Davido songs for them. We showed them some Nigerian dance steps. We also enjoyed listening and learning from our colleagues too. It was beautiful. You would also like it.

Cheers!