Three Kenyan law students have been adjudged winners of this year’s Jackson Moot Court Competition in Geneva, Switzerland.
Mishael Wambua, Kandalla Maleehah, and Catherine Penda from Kenya’s Strathmore University School of Law staved off competition from their counterparts in Harvard to emerge winners of the prestigious contest. This is the first time a team from Africa progressed to the finals of the competition.
Organized by the European Law Students’ Association (ELSA), the competition involves simulated proceedings based on the dispute settlement system of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Students from ninety law schools across Africa participated in the contest this year.
The competition opens every year in September with the release of the case under dispute, and this is followed by rounds of contest in the various regions of Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Americas. The best 20 teams worldwide at the individual rounds qualify to participate in the Final Oral Round, which is held in Geneva.
Since its inception in 2002, the John H. Jackson Moot Court Competition has been the only global student competition on WTO law, and it has been instrumental in “fostering awareness and in-depth study of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its dispute settlement system in law schools in many parts of the world.”
