International Moot Court Competition: Hungarian students become the third best in Europe in space law

Students of the Deák Ferenc Faculty of Law and Political Sciences at Széchenyi István University have achieved an outstanding international success, finishing third in the European round of the prestigious Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition. The team also received a special award for submitting a flawless written memorial during the competition held at the headquarters of the European Space Agency in Paris.

Dorina Bosits, Virág Herold and Balázs Zsuppán, students of the Deák Ferenc Faculty of Law and Political Sciences at Széchenyi István University, delivered an outstanding performance, reaching the semi-finals and ultimately placing third in this year’s European round of the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition. Over the past seven years, the Faculty has consistently participated in this prestigious international competition with increasing success.

The European round of this over-three-decades-old competition, simulating a dispute between two hypothetical states before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, was this year hosted by the European Space Agency at its Paris headquarters. The Agency is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and has included Hungary among its members for ten years. Participants had to resolve a highly complex, fictitious legal case centred on the use of services by a private company operating telecommunications satellites, the leasing and jamming of satellite telecommunications, operations and interceptions of satellites in close proximity, and the issues of compensation under international space law for damages arising during armed conflict.

Balázs Zsuppán, Dorina Bosits, and Virág Herold, students of the Deák Ferenc Faculty of Law and Political Sciences at Széchenyi István University, placed third in the European round of the space law moot court competition 

“During the seven-month preparation process covering several areas of international and space law, our students prepared nearly seventy-page written submissions in English for each of the two states involved in the dispute. These memorials follow the structure, content, and tone of the documents submitted by litigating states to the International Court of Justice,” explained Professor Gábor Sulyok of the Faculty.

He added that the students later presented the pleadings of the applicant and respondent states in the oral rounds. Each competing team participated in four hearings, each nearly an hour and a half long, where they presented arguments before three-member panels of judges and responded to their questions. “Our team reached the top four with the second highest score and finished in third place, also receiving the special award for the flawless written memorial. The final was won by students from the University of Luxembourg, who competed against the University of Vienna,” the professor reported.