All Ethiopia International Humanitarian Law Moot Court Competition 2023:

Competition Rules
The National International Humanitarian Law Competition 2023 aims at enhancing interest and
fostering a better understanding of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) across Ethiopia. The
Competition is based on a preliminary written round. The top six teams will proceed to the oral rounds
which are composed of both a moot court and role play where students are placed in fictitious but
realistic scenarios and are expected to use their legal knowledge, persuasions skills and creativity to
provide solutions to humanitarian challenges.

ELIGIBILITY

1. Each participating team shall be composed of three students, with at least one female student
in each team.

2. Participating students must be duly registered in the relevant participating institution for an
undergraduate degree in a discipline that covers topics relating to International Humanitarian
Law as one of its modules, whether compulsory or elective, such as law,
international relations and Conflict Management Studies. It shall not be a requirement for the
participating students to have undertaken the IHL module for the course.

3. A person is ineligible to participate in the Competition if he or she:

a. Is registered for a master’s degree or a PhD in law, international relations or

related fields.

b. Holds a master’s degree or a PhD in law, international relations or related fields;

c. Holds or has held a full time or part time teaching post in law, international relations or
related fields, at any tertiary institution; or

d. Has been admitted or licensed to practice law in any jurisdiction.

4. Participating students need not be nationals of, or normally resident in, the country in which
their participating institution is located.

STRUCTURE OF THE COMPETITION

5. The facts in the Competition fictitious scenario will be provided to each university focal point
on [date]. These facts constitute the subject matter of the Competition.

6. The competition organizers may in addition introduce additional facts to the scenarios during
the oral round of the competition.

Competition Rounds

7. The Competition shall be composed of a written round and followed by oral rounds.
 8. The written round will be marked by an independent and impartial judging team. The judging
team will rank the teams based on their written submissions.

9. The best 6 teams will be invited to participate in the oral rounds. In the event that a team is
unavailable or unwilling to continue the competition into the oral rounds, the next best team
will be invited to participate.

10. The oral rounds will be composed of two preliminary rounds, a semi-final and a final.

11. The first preliminary round will require students to role play in a scenario that are provided to
the students prior to the round. The role plays will require the teams to demonstrate their
understanding of IHL and related bodies of law in a fictitious situation. Examples of role
plays include checkpoints; government ministries; places of detention. The teams will be
provided with the details of the role play during the morning of the first day of the oral rounds.
The teams must be ready to prepare for the role play on short notice.

12. The second preliminary round will be a moot court based on the facts and charges of the
written submissions.

13. All the six teams shall take part in both preliminary rounds.

14. The performance of the teams shall be aggregated for the two preliminary rounds and shall
form the basis of picking the semi-finalists.

15. The four best teams will be chosen to proceed to the semi-finals. The team with the highest
score will compete against the team with the 4 th highest score, and the 2nd and 3rd teams will
compete against each other.

16. The winning team from each semi-final will proceed to the final round.

17. The semifinal and the grand final will be a moot court based on the facts and charges of the
written submissions. One team will play the role of prosecution and the other will play the role
of defence counsel. The allocation of roles will be undertaken randomly and will be notified on
the day of the competition. Teams should prepare both the prosecution and defence cases.

18. Decisions of the judges are final and cannot be appealed. Any decision concerning the
application of these rules will be determined by ICRC Addis Ababa Delegation Legal
Advisor Gashaw Tamir and ICRC Regional Legal Advisor Jemma Arman and cannot be
appealed.

Format of Memorial Submissions

19. The Memorial must contain the following parts, in the following order:

A) Cover page,

b) Table of contents

c) Questions presented or issues framed,

d) Statement of facts and of Jurisdiction,

e) Summary of pleadings,

f) Conclusion/Prayer for relief,

 g) Bibliography, and

f) List of Authorities.

20. Each Team shall prepare and submit written Memoranda of both for prosecution
and defense setting out the arguments of the two sides as instructed in the fictional case through
email (to be notified in due course) no later than 04 May 2023, 5:00 pm.

21. Each memorandum, including foot notes and excluding cover page and bibliography, shall not
exceed 1500 words.

22. Memorials must be submitted in MS Word Format.

23. Names of participants or universities shall not in any way appear on or within the memorials.
Memorials shall contain only team identification number. Violation of anonymity in any manner
whatsoever would result in immediate disqualification from the competition.

24. The font of the body of the Memorial must be Times New Roman, size 12, with 1.5 line spacing
and the font-size of footnotes/endnotes, if any, must be size 10.

25. Each page must have a margin of at least an inch on all sides.

26. 1.5 marks shall be deducted for each failure to observe adherence to the rules set out in this
rule.

Scoring and Ranking

27. For the written round, the participating teams shall be assessed on the following criteria.

a. Knowledge of IHL and related branches of law – 30 points

b. Application of the law to the problem – 40 points

c. Clarity of expression – 20 points

d. Referencing – 10 marks

28. For the oral rounds, the participating teams shall be assessed on the following criteria.

e. Knowledge of IHL and related branches of law – 30 points

f. Application of the law to the problem – 40 points

g. Presentation Skills – 20 points

h. Teamwork – 10 marks

29. As described above, after the 2 preliminary rounds the judges will select the best four teams to
proceed to the semi-finals. Besides the selection of the teams to proceed to the oral round, and
to each final (semi-finals and grand final), there shall be no general ranking of the performance.

Awards

30. The following will be awarded with prizes.

1. Two Best Memorials (one for Prosecution and the other for Defence)

2. overall Best Speaker from the oral round

 3. Best Speakers from each Participating Teams in the Oral Round

4. Recognition Certificates for all of the oral round participants and team coaches

5. Winning team of the 2023 National Moot Court Competition

6. Sponsorship of the winning team to the 2023 All Africa Regional Moot Court

7. Runners and second runner teams of the oral round will be awarded.

31. Amendment of the Rules

ICRC is fully authorized to change the rules if it finds necessary.