By Li-Wei Sung | Project Leader
The winners of last year’s 8th National International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Moot Court Competition from National Taiwan University (NTU), led by the school’s former mooters Yu-Hsiu and Cheng-Lin, headed to Hong Kong to take part in the 15th Red Cross Asia-Pacific Region International Humanitarian Law Moot from 8th to 11th March. The NTU team brought back two trophies – Best Defendant Memorial and Best Mooter.
Law majors undergraduate sophomore year Ting-Yu, junior year Sheng-Chan, and second-year graduate Hsiang-Yu went up against 24 teams from the Asia-Pacific region. Countries participated in the competition include Thailand, Australia, China, Korea, Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, New Zealand, Malaysia, Mongolia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Lao PDR, Nepal, Iran, and India. Despite not being able to advance to the quarter-final rounds, students expressed that they had enjoyed and learned much from their experience in Hong Kong.
The Asia-Pacific Moot is co-hosted by the Hong Kong Red Cross and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), with the support of the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The objectives of the Asia-Pacific Moot are to raise awareness of international humanitarian issues among law students, enhance knowledge and application of international humanitarian law rather than black letter law, promote the spirit of humanity among law students in the Asia-Pacific region, and to know more about the role and work of the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement.
In addition to the moot court competition, the organizing party also incorporated Role Play Contest, exploration activity – Warzone 90, and keynote seminars for the competing students, observers, coaches, and judges to take part in. For Role Play Contest, students were assigned one of two sides to represent in a thirty-minute session, replicating negotiation sessions centering on IHL issues. Warzone 90 was an unusual 90-minute journey for students to step onto a ruthless battlefield; participants built up a more concrete humanitarian perspective through experiencing the taste of despair, as well as the glimpse of hope.
Keynote seminars were given by former judge Sir Kenneth Keith of the International Court of Justice, legal adviser Mr. Antoine Bouvier of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and professor Shiyan Sun of the Institute of International Law at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on “Forty Years on from the Additional Protocols,” “Protecting Cultural Property in Armed Conflicts: A Long Journey,” and “The Applicability of International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law to the Fight against Terrorism: Issues and Remarks,” respectively.
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