LSE wins UK national championship for Jessup international law moot

Last weekend, LSE emerged undefeated as champion in the UK National Round of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition.

Held every year since 1960, the Jessup is the world’s largest mooting competition, with participants from around 800 law schools in more than 100 countries. The competition simulates a fictional dispute before the International Court of Justice.

LSE’s 2026 team (pictured below) includes LLM students Meryl Lim and Sky Ng, LLB students Kelly Hangchi and Leanne Lirio, and BA Anthropology and Law student William Harrison-Cushing. The team is coached by barrister and LSE alumnus Sajid Suleman, LLM student Lucija Ovsenik, and Dr Oliver Hailes. Practice rounds were generously judged by several LSE alumni.

The team has worked together over five months in researching and writing two 10,000-word submissions on four complex issues of public international law, including third-party intervention before the ICJ, the rights of Indigenous peoples, double jeopardy in extradition proceedings, and the jurisdictional immunities of state-owned enterprises. The team then prepared 45-minute oral submissions for each side of the dispute, which were delivered in several matches before a bench of three judges and challenged by arguments from opposing counsel.

Out of 22 teams, LSE emerged undefeated across seven rounds in the face of some very strong competition, including Durham, Northampton, Edinburgh, UCL, KCL, Sheffield and, finally, Oxford.

LSE was represented in the Championship Round by Will and Sky as oralists and Meryl as of counsel. It was judged by Sir Michael Wood KC, Dr Michael Engel and Samuel Wordsworth KC.

In addition to winning the Rebecca Wallace Trophy as UK national champion, Sky was named Best Oralist in the Championship Round and all three of LSE’s oralists (Leanne, Sky and Will) were ranked in the top 10 for the Preliminary Rounds.

The team will now represent the UK in the International Round, held in Washington DC at the end of this month.

LSE previously won the UK National Round in 1999, 2005, 2012 and 2015.

If you are a current or incoming student who is keen to compete next year, please email o.hailes@lse.ac.uk.