BİLGİ Team, European Champion of ELSA Moot Competition on WTO Law is off to Geneva for World Finals

BİLGİ Law Team, Winner of the European Regional Round of 2018 ELSA WTO Moot Court Competition on WTO Law is heading to Geneva for the Final Oral Rounds.

İstanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Law Team has won the European Regional Round of the ELSA Moot Court Competition on WTO Law (emc²) for the second time in row following the success of last year’s edition where it had also won the European Regional Round and had completed Global Final Oral Rounds as the World Runner-Up behind Harvard Law School.

The Team consisted of fourth year Law students Bengüsu Güvendi, Yağmur Kaya, Mustafa Bilgin, Kemal Ünal and Burak Bedük.  Dr Pınar Artıran, WTO Chair Holder and Director of the Research Center for International Trade Law and Arbitration acted as the Coach for the Team. BİLGİ Faculty of Law Team competed against 15 other European teams during this European regional round. Following the semi-final round against the team representing the University of Amsterdam, the Team went on to compete against the team from the Leuven Catholic University in the final oral round. Apart from being the overall Winner of the European Regional Round held in Naples, Italy, İstanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Law Team has also been awarded the prizes for "Best Written Submission for Defendant" and "Best Written Submission for Complainant". In addition to the Team’s overall victory, Bengüsu Güvendi was awarded Best Oralist for the final round.

BİLGİ Law School Team will now compete in the Final Oral Rounds against 21 best teams of Regional Rounds held in four continents of the world. Those universities include among others Harvard Law School (USA), Maastricht Law School (Netherlands), Graduate Institute of Geneva (Switzerland), Leuven Catholic University (Belgium), Australian National University (Australia), National Law University of India (India), Universidad Francisco Marroquin (Guatemala), Kenya School of Law (Kenya).  Final Oral Rounds are scheduled to take place in Geneva at the WTO Headquarters from 19th to 24th June 2018. The Team Coach and the WTO Chair Holder Dr. Pınar Artıran said: “Our team achieved a tremendous victory for the second time in row in this very important Moot Court Competition that is organized by ELSA International since 2002 and generously supported by the World Trade Organization and major EU and US based law firms and academic institutions. I am proud of having the chance to work with a group of absolutely bright students, promising young lawyers who grasped not only the intricacies of the case at hand but also excelled in undertaking serious discussions on WTO legal principles and its jurisprudence. Their sense of teamwork, diligence and collegiality deserves every recognition and is to be commended. The Competition is a simulated hearing of the WTO dispute settlement system where teams prepare and analyze a fictive case and present their arguments for both the Complainant and the Respondent in front of a Panel that consists of the WTO and trade law experts. This year’s moot court case evolved around the interface between trade liberalisation and environmental regulations with reference to border tax adjustment, product labelling and the state subsidies allocated for export promotion zones. Considering the current trend of protectionism in global trade relations and the tensions between major trading nations, the WTO Moot Court Competition becomes all the more important and relevant. The Competition is widely acknowledged as the world’s leading international trade law moot court competition. The aim is to enhance the knowledge in international trade law and WTO dispute settlement procedures as well as to increase the capacity for meaningful engagement in multilateral trade in the long term. The teams prepare written submissions for the complainant and respondent of a fictitious case written by a WTO professional. Five elimination rounds are taking place all over the world: American Round, Asia Pacific Round, two European Rounds and an African Round. The best 22 teams from all over the world, including İstanbul Bilgi University team are qualified to participate in the Final Oral Round, which will take place in Geneva, Switzerland from the 19^th to 24^th June 2018. On behalf of our University and in my capacity as the WTO Chair Holder and Team Coach, we consider this achievement to be a tremendous one and we are committed to honour the mandate given by the WTO to İstanbul Bilgi University through the WTO Chair title to help building trade related capacity and expertise in Turkey.”