Bucerius Moot Court: Law students inspire with captivating arguments!

Bucerius Moot Court: Law students inspire with captivating arguments!

The 18th Bucerius Common Law Moot, which took place from May to June 2025, is an excellent example of the exciting world of moot courts. Organized by the Foreign Language Communication Program at Bucerius Law School, this moot is aimed at first and second year students. It is anchored in the curriculum as an independent course and enables participants to acquire an additional credit point for the subject-specific foreign language examination (FFP).

To earn this point, participants must plead twice and submit two skeleton arguments in the first round. This year's case issue was based on the much-discussed case of Oscar Pistorius, who was charged with the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013. During the trial, the court found that the prosecution had failed to prove that Pistorius acted intentionally, meaning he was only convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Central aspects of this year's moot were the questions of conditional intent and self-defense.

Quality of participants

The judges were impressed by the quality of the arguments and the legal knowledge of the participants. A tie-break process was necessary to determine the finalists. These consisted of Joshua Leydecker (Senior Counsel) and Per Ahmerkamp (Junior Counsel) for the appellant side and Milan Kohlhaase (Senior Counsel) and Leonardo Giulini (Junior Counsel) for the respondent side.

In the final, which was decided by a three-person panel of judges led by Professor Marah McLeod, Leydecker and Ahmerkamp won first place. They were awarded the Bucerius Common Law Moot challenge cup and prize money of 200 euros. Their competitors, Kohlhaase and Giulini, received 100 euros and a special prize for the best skeleton arguments. Luzi Hillert also received the award as the best speaker in the preliminary round.

Support and outlook

All participants received a certificate of participation for their participation. Special mention goes to the moot participants who helped with the evaluation of the preliminary rounds, as well as to Professor Marah McLeod for her support. The competition has once again proven how important moot courts are for the practical training of law students.

In parallel to the Bucerius Common Law Moot, there are a number of other competitions, such as the Hanse Moot Court, which is organized by the Hamburg Constitutional Court in cooperation with the Bucerius Law School and the University of Hamburg. The Hanse Moot Court aims to use constitutional law as a benchmark for socio-political issues and enables students to get to know the area of ​​law in practice outside of the lecture hall. In this context, students have to prepare written reports on constitutional cases, which are then presented to a commission of renowned jurors.

Moot courts are crucial to the education of aspiring lawyers because they offer students the opportunity to act as lawyers in simulated negotiations. Participants can not only gain practical experience through moot courts, but also acquire seminar and key qualification certificates. The large number of different competitions – such as the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot or the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court – offers Bucerius Law School students a promising platform to develop their skills.

The successful implementation of the Bucerius Common Law Moot creates curiosity for the next edition of the competition and reinforces the traditionally strong mooting culture at Bucerius Law School. law-school.de reports that the anticipation is already noticeable. For further insights into the world of moot courts jura.uni-bonn.de and jura.uni-heidelberg.de interesting information.