International Criminal Court Moot Court team wins North American Competition

For the first time in program history, Case Western Reserve University School of Law's International Criminal Court Moot Court team won the North American Competition held at Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. Teresa Lebowitz, serving as the Defense Counsel oralist, defeated other student oralists from Tulane Law School and the University of Chicago to earn the top prize. 

To get to the final round, Kaylara Benfield represented the team as the oralist for the Office of the Prosecutor and Maria Blough served as the oralist for the Government's Counsel in the preliminary rounds. The team's 1L students, Nicholas Albright, Alexis Moskowitz and Abby Swantek, also participated in the preliminary rounds as volunteer oralists and co-counsel.

Coaches Michael Benza and Caroline Ford helped the team tackle this year's problem, which addressed a wide array of international criminal law issues such as what protections exist under the law for humanitarian assistance missions, the role of head of state immunity before the International Criminal Court, and whether an irregular rendition can justify case dismissal.

With the win, the team will return to the international competition in The Hague, the Netherlands, this June to compete against teams from all across the globe.