After a teensy dry spell [many apologies, my fault! -Kian], the Mooting Premier League (MPL) 7 is back with some exciting news in the penultimate update before we confirm the results of the ELSA WTO World Rounds and the International Maritime Law Arbitration Moot (IMLAM): the winners and points hauled at the 10th NLSTIAM 2017 moot and the international rounds of the ICC Hague Moot 2017.

The ultimate domestic season finale: X NLS-Trilegal International Arbitration Moot Court Competition 2017

NLSIU Bangalore’s flagship and India’s toughest arbitration moot court competition, the NLSTIAM 2017 organised from 11-14 May, saw NUJS Kolkata dominate (once again) India’s arbitration moot scenes by taking down ILS Pune in the finals. Liveblogged on LI, the moot marked the culmination of this year’s domestic mooting season with the NUJS team comprising of Unnati Jhunjhunwala, Ayana Banerjee, Amrit Singh and Aastha Sharma drawing the final blood against the all-powerful ILS team comprising of Tvishi Pant, Neha Deshmukh, Lisa Mishra and Mohak Chikale.

While NLIU Bhopal and ILNU Ahmedabad made it to the semis, NLIU won the best claimant memorial, and NLU Delhi won the best respondent memorial. University of Sheffield won the best speaker citation at the moot.

Points Awarded at NLSTIAM:

Winner: NUJS Kolkata (15)

Runners-Up: ILS Pune (8)

Semi-Finalists: NLIU Bhopal (4) and ILNU Ahmedabad (4)

Best Claimant Memorial: NLIU (8)

Best Respondent Memorial: NLU Delhi (8)

Organiser: NLSIU Bangalore (2)

ICC Hague World Rounds 2017 and the Revival of NLS’ MPL Dominance

While most readers would agree that MPL VII has seen many twists and turns, with MPL VI champion being stuck in the 8th position and until 2 stories back, MPL’s strongest contender struggling to remain in the top 10. But all it took were two international moots, for NLSIU Bangalore to come back wreaking havoc in the ranking tables, nibbling at Nalsar’s feet.

Meanwhile GNLU further strengthened its 6-week long MPL domination, as both colleges continue to grill Nalsar Hyderabad which is under a serious threat of being pushed to a 3rd position MPL VII finish.

While the Indian National Rounds winner NLU Delhi and GNLU Gandhinagar emerged as quarter-finalists at the tier II moot, NLSIU made another killing, post emerging as semi-finalists at the moot. Additionally, it won the best defense-counsel team citation amassing another 5 points, as GNLU’s Arvind Pillai won the Best Defense Counsel-Oralist citation winning 20 bumper points for GNLU.

NLUD emerged as the second runners-up in the best victim-counsel team citation, winning 5 points as well.

Points Awarded at ICC Hague:

NLSIU: Best Defense-Counsel Team (5) + Semi-Finalist (15) = 20

GNLU: Best Defense Counsel-Oralist (20) = 20

NLUD: 2nd Runners-Up, Best Victim-Counsel Team (5) = 5

MPL Table Analysis:

At the 12th hour, MPL III, IV and V Champion NLSIU Bangalore has emerged as an MPL force to reckon with, accumulating 85 points from two tier II international moots in two consecutive MPL stories, and thereby leapfrogging from its erstwhile 8th position almost to 2nd spot of the MPL.

Meanwhile GNLU Gandhinagar has almost certainly won MPL VII with its further consolidation post ICC Hague and it will have one last solid shot at sealing the top spot at ELSA WTO World Rounds 2017 scheduled for the 2nd week of June 2017.

We hope to confirm those results shortly.

Nalsar, not having won any points at NLSTIAM 2017, will have a very slim chance of narrowing down the solid 22 point difference at the tier V IMLAM 2017 moot, meaning its MPL VII innings might officially end at the 2nd spot, unless NLS covers the 6 point gap, pushing the former to the 3rd position.

Meanwhile NUJS Kolkata and NLIU Bhopal have lodged themselves at the 4th and 5th spot respectively, as NLUD follows closely at the 6th position pushing MPL VII’s most successful domestic college-SLS Pune, to the 7th rank.

So, as we stare at the final two moots scheduled for the month of June and a culmination of MPL VII, one last time, the question lingers: Will GNLU become the 4th NLU to slay its way to the MPL VII crown or will Nalsar make the ultimate comeback post IMLAM?

Stay tuned.

MPL 7 season rankings