When the fledgling international criminal court mock trial competition foundered a decade ago, School of Law Co-Dean Michael Scharf co-founded the International Criminal Court Moot Court Competition in The Hague with Professor Carsten Stahn, Director of the Grotius Center at Leiden University School of Law. Since then, Dean Scharf has chaired the Competition’s Board of Advisors and has annually drafted the Competition’s problem and Bench Memo.
Over the years, the competition, whose final round is held in the real ICC courtroom with real ICC judges, has grown to 95 universities from 50 countries. This year, the International Bar Association (IBA) joined as global sponsor and the competition was renamed the IBA ICC Moot Court.
At the closing ceremony of the competition on June 26, Mark Ellis, executive director of the IBA, presented Dean Scharf with a special leadership award for his “extraordinary work with the IBA International Criminal Court Moot Court competition.” Ellis lauded Scharf for his creativity, energy, and expertise in writing the ICC Moot Court Problems and Bench Memos, and said that the IBA would not have entered into the new partnership if it weren't for the continuing leadership of Dean Scharf as Chairman of the Board of Advisors.