Hardly moot

Fletcher team captures Northeast Regional Jessup crown

The only thing the Fletcher School team lost at the Northeastern Regional of the 2006 Jessup International Moot Court Competition was the final coin toss.

The Fletcher team beat out 14 other teams at the competition, held at Boston College. Fletcher defeated the team from Syracuse for the win. Fletcher students who participated included Garth Schofield, Amy Senier, Karoun Demirjian, David Raikow and Heather Sensibaugh.

“It was like watching verbal kung-fu,” said Matt McCandless, F06. “They ceded no ground, yet smiled all the way through, and their energy was simply infectious.”

The case argued in the 2006 competition is known as “The Case Concerning the Elysian Fields.” In the case, the fictitious Republic of Nessus dissolves into two countries, Rubria and Acastus. Both countries have appealed to the International Court of Justice to decide four legal issues.

“The whole Jessup experience is so valuable because there are really so many facets to the competition,” said Tamas Kovacs, F04, who coached the team. “The key to doing well is very quickly seeing through a complicated legal problem, picking up the relevant facts and making logical arguments in a very specific and structured presentation style.”