What level of participants is this competition open to?

The competition is open to college-level participants.

When is the competition scheduled to occur?

The competition is scheduled for April.

67th Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition

Apr 4–4, 2026Delhi, IndiaIn-person

ConcludedRegistration closed

The 67th Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition is scheduled to be held in Delhi, IND. This prestigious event brings together college-level participants from around the world to engage in simulated international legal proceedings. The competition provides a unique platform for students to hone their advocacy skills and deepen their understanding of complex international law issues.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 3 countries stand on the dominant committee topic. Click through for the full country profile.

India

As the host nation, IND plays a significant role in facilitating this global legal competition.

Role in topic

Hosting the competition in Delhi, IND, highlights the country's growing prominence in international legal discourse and its commitment to fostering legal education and international cooperation. It provides an opportunity for local legal communities to engage with international legal standards and practices.

United States

The USA is historically a strong participant and often a leading nation in international legal education.

Role in topic

The competition originated in the USA, and universities from the USA consistently participate, often setting high standards for legal argumentation and research. Their involvement reflects a deep engagement with international law and its application.

Netherlands

The NLD is home to key international legal institutions and contributes significantly to international law.

Role in topic

The NLD, as the seat of the International Court of Justice, holds a central position in international law. Its participation in such competitions reinforces its commitment to upholding and advancing international legal principles.

Topics & background

The history behind each committee topic and the states that shape it.

The Sources and Evolution of Public International Law

Public international law emerged from the European state system codified at the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which entrenched principles of sovereignty and non-interference. Over the following centuries, customary practices among states — on diplomacy, the laws of war, and treatment of foreigners — hardened into binding norms, supplemented by treaties such as the 1899 and 1907 Hague Conventions. The catastrophe of two world wars accelerated institutionalization: the League of Nations, then the United Nations Charter of 1945, the Statute of the International Court of Justice, and the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties established the modern architecture. Article 38(1) of the ICJ Statute remains the canonical list of sources: treaties, customary international law, general principles of law recognized by civilized nations, and, as subsidiary means, judicial decisions and scholarly writings. Contemporary debates concern the fragmentation of the field into specialized regimes (trade, investment, human rights, environment), the rise of soft law, and the influence of non-Western legal traditions on what had been a Eurocentric discipline. Today the system faces stress-testing on multiple fronts: great-power competition, contested ICJ proceedings on Gaza and Ukraine, unilateral sanctions, and challenges from states arguing the post-1945 order reflects colonial-era power imbalances. Reform proposals range from revitalizing the International Law Commission's codification work to recognizing new peremptory norms (jus cogens) on environmental protection.

Key players

The International Court of Justice: Jurisdiction and Authority

The International Court of Justice was established by the UN Charter in 1945 as the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, succeeding the Permanent Court of International Justice of the League era. Seated at the Peace Palace in The Hague, the Court is composed of fifteen judges elected by the General Assembly and Security Council for nine-year terms, and exercises both contentious jurisdiction between consenting states and advisory jurisdiction at the request of authorized UN organs. Its jurisprudence has shaped foundational doctrines: the Corfu Channel (1949) case on state responsibility, the Nicaragua (1986) judgment on the use of force, the Nuclear Weapons advisory opinion (1996), and the Bosnia Genocide case (2007). Yet the Court's authority rests on state consent, and major powers have at times withdrawn from compulsory jurisdiction — the United States after Nicaragua — or refused to comply with rulings, exposing enforcement gaps that depend ultimately on the Security Council. The Court's docket has expanded dramatically in recent years. South Africa v. Israel under the Genocide Convention, Ukraine v. Russian Federation, The Gambia v. Myanmar, and the 2024 advisory opinion on the legal consequences of Israel's policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territory have placed the ICJ at the center of contested geopolitics. The 2025 advisory opinion on states' climate-change obligations further extends its role into transnational regulatory questions.

Key players

The Rights of Indigenous Peoples Under International Law

Indigenous peoples — estimated at over 476 million across some ninety countries — long stood outside the protection of an international legal order built around states. Early instruments such as ILO Convention 107 (1957) adopted an assimilationist posture; the shift came with ILO Convention 169 (1989), which recognized indigenous peoples as distinct collectivities with rights to land, culture, and consultation. The 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), though formally non-binding, articulated the principle of free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) and the right to self-determination within existing states. Regional jurisprudence has given these norms teeth. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights, in Awas Tingni v. Nicaragua (2001) and Saramaka v. Suriname (2007), recognized communal land title and consultation obligations. The African Commission's Endorois decision (2010) followed similar lines. Yet implementation remains uneven: extractive industries, conservation projects, and infrastructure corridors continue to displace indigenous communities, often without meaningful FPIC. Current flashpoints include mining in the Amazon and Andes, lithium and rare-earth extraction in indigenous territories from Australia to the U.S. Southwest, the Sami reindeer-herding cases in Scandinavia, and Arctic governance as climate change opens new frontiers. The interaction between indigenous rights and the energy transition — where 'green' minerals are often on indigenous land — is now a central legal and ethical dispute.

Key players

Rare Earth Minerals and the Geopolitics of Critical Supply Chains

Rare earth elements — the seventeen lanthanides plus scandium and yttrium — are essential to permanent magnets, electric motors, wind turbines, semiconductors, and precision-guided munitions. Despite the name, they are not geologically rare; the bottleneck lies in separation and refining, which is chemically demanding and environmentally costly. From the 1960s through the 1980s, the United States led global production from Mountain Pass, California. China systematically captured the industry through the 1990s and 2000s, and today controls roughly 60 percent of mining and over 85 percent of refining capacity. The strategic vulnerability became unmistakable in 2010, when China restricted exports to Japan during a diplomatic dispute over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands. A WTO dispute (DS431/432/433) followed, and in 2014 the Appellate Body ruled China's export quotas inconsistent with its accession commitments. Since then, the United States, European Union, Japan, and Australia have pursued 'friend-shoring,' stockpiling, and domestic refining capacity, while China has tightened export licensing on gallium, germanium, graphite, and certain rare-earth processing technologies through 2023–2025. The legal issues span WTO law on export restrictions and security exceptions, investment treaty protection for mining projects, environmental and indigenous-rights obligations at extraction sites, and emerging rules on deep-sea-bed mining under UNCLOS and the International Seabed Authority. The question of whether critical-mineral measures fall within the GATT Article XXI security exception, recently invoked with growing frequency, is a live and unsettled point of international economic law.

Key players

General Principles of Law as a Source of International Law

Article 38(1)(c) of the ICJ Statute lists 'the general principles of law recognized by civilized nations' as a source of international law alongside treaties and custom. The clause originated in the 1920 drafting of the Permanent Court of International Justice Statute as a means of avoiding non liquet — the inability of a court to decide a case for lack of applicable law. The drafters envisioned principles derived from comparative domestic law: good faith, estoppel, res judicata, equity, and the prohibition of abuse of rights. The scope and method of identifying such principles have long been contested. Some scholars, following Hersch Lauterpacht, view them as a creative bridge between municipal and international law; others, more positivist, treat them as a narrow gap-filler. The International Law Commission took up the topic in 2018, with Special Rapporteur Marcelo Vázquez-Bermúdez producing draft conclusions distinguishing principles derived from national legal systems from those 'formed within the international legal system' itself. The ILC adopted the draft conclusions on first reading in 2023. Contemporary controversy centers on three points: the dated and arguably colonial phrasing 'civilized nations'; whether principles such as sustainable development, the precautionary principle, or common but differentiated responsibilities qualify as general principles; and how tribunals — particularly investment arbitration panels — should methodologically demonstrate that a principle is genuinely common to the world's major legal systems rather than reflecting a narrow Western consensus.

Key players

The Law of State Immunity

State immunity, the doctrine that one state's courts may not adjudicate claims against another sovereign, descends from the Latin maxim par in parem non habet imperium and was first systematically articulated in The Schooner Exchange v. McFaddon (U.S., 1812). Through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, most states adhered to absolute immunity. As governments increasingly engaged in commercial activity, however, courts and legislatures moved to a 'restrictive' theory distinguishing sovereign acts (jure imperii), which remain immune, from commercial acts (jure gestionis), which do not. The U.S. Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (1976), the UK State Immunity Act (1978), and the European Convention on State Immunity (1972) crystallized the shift. The 2004 UN Convention on Jurisdictional Immunities of States and Their Property codified the restrictive approach globally but has not yet entered into force. The ICJ's Jurisdictional Immunities of the State (Germany v. Italy, 2012) judgment held that customary international law required Italy to grant Germany immunity even for claims arising from grave violations of international humanitarian law during the Second World War — a ruling Italy's Constitutional Court subsequently refused to apply domestically in Judgment 238/2014, creating an ongoing standoff. Current debates concern terrorism exceptions (notably the U.S. JASTA legislation and Canadian counterparts), the immunity of state-owned enterprises and central bank assets, attempts to attach Russian sovereign assets to compensate Ukraine, and the relationship between immunity and peremptory norms. The intersection of state immunity with immunity of state officials — under question in proceedings concerning heads of state and senior ministers — remains particularly unsettled.

Key players

Key terms & resources

The concepts worth knowing before 67th Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, plus lessons and profiles to go deeper.

Article 12 — Definition of 'State'Article 142 (Power to do Complete Justice)Article 142 — Doing Complete Justice Climate Justice Contempt of Court Act of State

Frequently asked questions

Related conferences

67th Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition

Apr 4–4, 2026Delhi, IndiaIn-person

ConcludedRegistration closed

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 3 countries stand on the dominant committee topic. Click through for the full country profile.

India

As the host nation, IND plays a significant role in facilitating this global legal competition.

Role in topic

United States

The USA is historically a strong participant and often a leading nation in international legal education.

Role in topic

Netherlands

The NLD is home to key international legal institutions and contributes significantly to international law.

Role in topic

Topics & background

The history behind each committee topic and the states that shape it.

The Sources and Evolution of Public International Law

Key players

The International Court of Justice: Jurisdiction and Authority

Key players

The Rights of Indigenous Peoples Under International Law

Key players

Rare Earth Minerals and the Geopolitics of Critical Supply Chains

Key players

General Principles of Law as a Source of International Law

Key players

The Law of State Immunity

Key players

Key terms & resources

The concepts worth knowing before 67th Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, plus lessons and profiles to go deeper.

Article 12 — Definition of 'State'Article 142 (Power to do Complete Justice)Article 142 — Doing Complete Justice Climate Justice Contempt of Court Act of State

Country perspectives

Topics & background

Key terms & resources

Frequently asked questions

Related conferences

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Jessup Canadian Rounds – Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition 2026

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V AUAP–JLU International Moot Court Competition, 2026

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Country perspectives

Topics & background

Key terms & resources

Frequently asked questions

Related conferences

Судові дебати з міжнародного права імені Філіпа Джессапа 2026

22nd K.K. Luthra Memorial Moot Court Competition

Jessup Canadian Rounds – Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition 2026

Asia-Pacific Moot Court Competition 2026

V AUAP–JLU International Moot Court Competition, 2026

3rd Justice Hidayatullah International Moot Court Competition (HIMCC) 2026

Related conferences

Судові дебати з міжнародного права імені Філіпа Джессапа 2026

22nd K.K. Luthra Memorial Moot Court Competition

Jessup Canadian Rounds – Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition 2026

Asia-Pacific Moot Court Competition 2026

V AUAP–JLU International Moot Court Competition, 2026

3rd Justice Hidayatullah International Moot Court Competition (HIMCC) 2026