WashULaw’s Jessup team competed in the International Rounds of the Philip C. Jessup Moot Court competition, which was held from March 31 to April 6, 2019, in Washington, D.C. This was the 60th anniversary of the competition, which began with Harvard law school in 1959.
The competition brought together the national winners from various countries and the 12 teams representing the United States who finished 1st and 2nd in the six regional competitions held earlier this year. A record 143 schools from 98 countries competed in the week-long event for the right to be declared world champion. The new world champion is Hungary –Eötvös Loránd University.
WashULaw finished in the top 30 of all teams in the amount of raw points accumulated. WashULaw defeated Belarusian State University – Faculty of International Relations from Belarus, who advanced to the octo-finals of the tournament. WashULaw also defeated West University of Timisoara from Romania, but unfortunately, lost a very close round to Yale University by one point, which kept the WashULaw team from advancing to the playoff rounds. Yale University would end up going to the semi-finals.
WashULaw also had two oralists place in the top 5 of the competition. Megan Ferguson (2L) placed 2nd in the competition with an average score of 94.8. Wenlan Geng (3L) placed 3rd with an average score of 93.8. This is quite an impressive achievement given that over 450 oralists competed in the competition. Moreover, this is the first time that Washington University has placed two oralists in the top 5 of the competition.
The team is composed of the following five members: Emily Brewster (3L), Wenlan Geng (3L), Lola Awobokun (2L), Megan Ferguson (2L) and Kristina Houchins (2L). The faculty advisor is Prof. Leila Sadat. The team coach is the Hon. Gilbert C. Sison, United States Magistrate Judge for the Southern District of Illinois. The other co-author of the problem, Michael Peil, was a former Associate Dean for International Programs at Washington University School of Law.
