By Alyssa Chrizelle Miclat and Ella Marie Mercado
Last February 9, 2024, The San Beda University International Law Society (ILS) launched “Prelude: The 2024 ILS Cup Primer,” a public international law moot court competition.
The event was graced by several esteemed alumni of the ILS. Atty. Dentzen Villegas, SBU-COL Batch 2020 Valedictorian was the author of this year’s moot court problem. He revealed that it was already conceptualized in 2020, but it was delayed due to the pandemic.
Marie Louise Estabillo, Governor of SBU-ILS and the Project Head of the ILS Cup 2024, explained, “Last year, they planned on bringing back the ILS Cup through a primer […] the main purpose of the primer was to reintroduce the moot court competition after being on hiatus since the pandemic.”
Atty. Anna Margarita Malonzo, Senior Director of SyCip Gorres Velayo & Co., emphasized the value of teamwork, stating that “it was important to designate the roles of each member at the onset” Atty. Kevin Chris Sese, also an esteemed ILS alumni, shared that, “Oral advocacy transcends moot court, it covers litigation in general, and even non-litigation, [since] advocacy is how you make your case in the court— written or oral.”
Estabillo further explained, “Mooting is unfamiliar to law students, especially to those in the lower years, so introducing mooting in a regular classroom setup is challenging. Thus this ILS Cup primarily involves ILS reaching out to PIL professors to have their students participate.”
Christine Umadhay, ILS Director General, explained that the theme of a moot court competition is based on the subject of the moot problem. The current 23-page problem was drawn from various international issues such as Myanmar’s violation of the Genocide Convention, Ukraine vs Russia, the protest in Hong Kong vs China, the water crisis in the Middle East and North Africa, among others.
Umadhay stressed that the moot problem was supposed to be used in last year’s ILS Cup. However, the current moot problems are more in line with San Beda’s commitment to implementing Laudato Si, which was also launched at the University during the beginning of the second semester.
THE BARRISTER 