The 33rd Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition (Asia-Pacific), organized by the International Institute of Space Law (IISL), concluded in Tokyo, Japan on June 8 and 9. After a fierce competition, Beihang team obtained the first prize and became the first Chinese university team that won the top four in the Asia-Pacific Competition, achieving the best result in the history of Beihang university.
The Beihang team was coached by Associate Professor Gao Qi from the Law School. Gan Weijia, a 2021 undergraduate from the Law School, Yang Antong, a 2022 undergraduate from the Law School, and Shi Yunfei, a 2022 undergraduate from the Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences were team members. Chen Shengyi, a 2021 undergraduate from the Law School served as leader, and undergraduates Wang Xinru, Wang Chuxuan, Ni Xinran, and Wang Chongyu from the Law School were auxiliary team members.
This year, the competition attracted 31 top universities in the Asia-Pacific region to participate, including China, India, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, etc. Sixty-five renowned experts and scholars from China, the U.S., the U.K., France, Japan, Australia, India, Argentina, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines took part in pleadings review and on-site court hearings. After two months of meticulous polishing, Beiang students submitted a 10,000-word English pleading with solid legal skills and fluent English expression, stood out among the 31 teams in the preliminary round, and successfully advanced to the final round of the on-site trial held in Japan.
The topics of this year’s competition were selected from the latest cases of the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition published by IISL. It focused on important issues of outer space law such as allocation of responsibility for satellite collision accidents, compensation for damages caused by space debris, optical pollution caused by giant low-orbiting constellations to ground-based telescopes, and the allocation of the status and responsibility of international organizations and member states, skillfully combining cutting-edge practice in the field of international space law with traditional international law theories.
The Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition is an annual, world-class competition founded by the International Institute of Space Law (IISL) in 1992, which is named after Manfred Lachs, a renowned international jurist and the longest-serving former Justice of the International Court of Justice. The competition has become one of the highest-level and most influential moot court competitions in the world today, as each year's finals are heard by the three current Justices of the United Nations International Court of Justice in person. The Asia-Pacific Regional Competition is an important part of the IISL Moot Court Global Competition System, and is also the most competitive one of the five regions.
The Law School of Beihang University adheres to the policy of “standardization, internationalization and strategic characteristics”, fully relies on the advantages of science and technology disciplines of Beihang, and cultivates outstanding legal talents with international vision and cross-disciplinary knowledge background by promoting learning through competitions. This competition marks a new milestone for the exploration and enhancement of Beihang’s international space law moot court practice teaching, provides a high-level and internationalized exercise platform for the students, and fully demonstrates the effectiveness of the university's practice on high-quality liberal arts construction and first-class talent cultivation.
Written by: Zhang Bojun
Reviewed by: Zhou Youjun
Edited by: Jia Aiping
Translated by: Hu Xueyang
