Success! Hungarian ELTE University defeats Yale and Columbia

ELTE won one of the world’s most prestigious law contests, the 2019 Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition. The students of the Hungarian university received many individual awards, too.

Elaborate English, deep knowledge

In fact, ELTE teams received many points and a lot of individual awards in the previous years, but this is the first time that a Hungarian team managed to get into the finals where they met the team of Columbia University. The team of ELTE consisted of Gábor Bazsó, Zolta Buda, Marcell Koncsik and Vanessza Szép who were helped and prepared by Gábor Kajtár, Katalin Sulyok and Dániel Pap – arsboni.hu reported.

The contestants had to

simulate fictive judicial combat

representing non-existent states in an ad hoc international court of justice.

The legal case they had to solve was complex and raised important questions related to the responsibilities of the states, environmental protection and human rights. Contestants had to take part in written and oral rounds until they got into the Washington finals.

There, the team of

ELTE was the Respondent

and had to convince an international court of justice (Hugh Adsett, S. James Anaya, Andrew B. Loewenstein). The Applicant was the winner in the United States, the team of Columbia University, so, they could take the first turn. Both teams had 45 minutes to present their four most important arguments, and in the case of the Hungarian team, Gábor Bazsó and Zolta Buda talked.