UP Law mooters’ magical run ends in the Jessup final four in Washington

Ending a magical run on the world stage, Team Philippines bowed to Team Russia in the semi-finals of the 2012 Jessup International Law Moot Court competition. The team from the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Law barrelled through 136 other teams from over 600 law schools from 80 countries – the only group from Asia – to make it that far. Moot court is to law students as quidditch is to aspiring wizards — a battle of the arcane arts which, for those who follow it, is, well, nothing short of magical. At least for this year, UP Law was the country’s Hogwarts, whizzing up to the ‘octo-finals’ for a chance to snatch the golden cup at the Jessup competition held in Washington D.C. "Team Philippines (UP Law) won its octofinals round vs Greece. Will move on to quarterfinals tomorrow, 30March at 10am est. Go philippines!," tweeted the team's head coach UP Law professor Harry Roque. In the semi-finals, Moscow State University beat UP Law to earn the right to face Columbia Law School of the Unites States of America which, in turn, had won over Auckland Law School of Australia. "UP Law yielded to Moscow State. Its Moscow versus Columbia for the Championship round tomorrow. Great performance Team Philippines!," Roque announced. Earlier in the quarter-finals, UP Law had beaten Hastings Law of the USA. The UP Law contingent is composed of Christopher Louie Ocampo (as team captain), Daniel Sigfreid Corpus, A. Rafael Juico, Marie Michelle Go, Ma. Margarita Lim, and Neil Nucup. Their head coach is UP Law professor Harry Roque, with lawyer Maricel Seno as assistant coach.   UP Law professor Diane Desierto – the first Asian to clerk for the International Court of Justice – posted on Facebook her congratulatory remarks after having personally seen “the excellent and closely fought Jessup semi-final between Team Russia and Team Philippines.” “A tough match today for these brilliant law students from Manila, only means more passionately driven, analytically sharp, and critically constructive international lawyers standing for the Philippines in the future,” said Desierto. “Proud to have seen these students grow, prouder still to see how they transformed themselves from the first time we subjected them to the rigors of try-outs at UP Law last year.” “The Philippine National Jessup Champions showed elegance in legal reasoning, progressive advocacy of international law, and the willingness to embrace complexity today,” she also noted. UP Law had previously won the Jessup World Cup in 1995, with Chito Gascon leading the team. Ateneo de Manila Law School also won the cup back in 2004.  Emotional about Vinuya vs Executive Secretary   Roque said he turned "emotional" during the third round, as the problem presented to contestants involved "Vinuya vs Executive Secretary."   The case is a petition of some 70 supposed "comfort women" used by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II, seeking compensation from the Japanese government for the sexual abuse they have suffered in the hands of Japanese soldiers.   "Third match of Team PhL at Jessup today. Bound to be very emotional since opponent and problem partly relevant to Vinuya case (lolas case)," Roque tweeted.   Roque was the lawyer for the comfort women and was the one who pointed out in a July 2010 supplemental motion with the Supreme Court the supposed plagiarism committed by Justice Mariano del Castillo who authored the decision.   Roque claimed portions of the Vinuya ruling were lifted from law journals and a book, including “A Fiduciary Theory of Jus Cogens” by Evan Criddle and Evan Fox-Decent, “Breaking the Silence: Rape as an International Crime” by Mark Ellis, and “Enforcing Erga Omnes Obligations” by Christian Tams.   The high court formed a team to probe the incident, and eventually cleared Del Castillo of the plagiarism charge.   The issue was one of the eight Articles of Impeachment House prosecutors used to impeach Chief Justice Renato Corona.   House prosecutors claimed Corona was liable for way the investigation was done on the issues of plagiarism and its results, saying the probe should have been left to the House of Representatives, which has the power to impeach erring justices. — with a report from Mark D. Merueñas /ELR/HS, GMA News