Nalsar Hyderabad extended its lead in the Mooting Premier League (MPL) in the semi-finals of the Philip C. Jessup International Moot, while GNLU Gandhinagar and NUJS Kolkata recovered in the ranks after the Tier 2 ELSA WTO Moot Taiwan and the Tier 3 Willem C Vis East Moot in Hong Kong.

Jessup: Nalsar
Nalsar Hyderabad lost out in the semi-finals of Jessup to the eventual winner Australian National University, which defeated New York's Columbia Law School last weekend (27 March).

Nalsar Hyderabad picked up 10 points in the Mooting Premier League (MPL) sponsored by Clifford Chance for reaching the semi-finals in this Tier 1 competition, which is popularly referred to as the world cup of mooting with 105 participating teams.

Nalsar's team consisted of speakers Shatadru Chakraborty and Dhananjaya Mishra and researchers Brajendu Bhaskar and Ashish Parekh.

Nalsar now towers above the other MPL teams with 50 per cent more points than the nearest contender NLU Jodhpur at 94 points.

ELSA WTO Asia (Taiwan): NUJS and GNLU
MPL final-ranked GNLU Ghandinagar returned to form and jumped into the top 10 ranks and together with NUJS Kolkata has qualified for the Tier 2 WTO World Rounds

At the Tier 3 ELSA WTO Asia selection rounds in Taiwan from 17 – 20th March, GNLU bagged the runner-up spot in the competition after losing to University of the Philippines in the finals.

GNLU speaker Anshu Choudhary also picked up the best oralist prize in the preliminary rounds. The GNLU team also included Aayushi sharma, Prerna Choudhary and Aditi Tank.

Both awards are worth 7 points each, giving GNLU a boost to 17 points and the 11th place in the Mooting Premier League - a jump of 15 places.

NUJS Kolkata came third in the ELSA WTO selection round.

The top three teams of the ELSA regional round qualify for the WTO World Rounds in the Dominican Republic 24 to 30 May, meaning two Indian teams will be represented at the competition.

NUJS speaker Sneha Janakiraman won the second best orator prize in the preliminary rounds in Taiwan. She said: "I thought the competition was excellent because of the forum and the quality of judging. It was not only about mooting but also about learning trade law."

She enthused that she was looking forward to competing in the world finals where there would be some "very high quality mooting".

Willem C Vis Hong Kong
The NUJS Kolkata team of speakers Sree Mitra and Ramanuj Mukherjee and researcher George Verghese meanwhile picked up an honourable mention and 7 points for the respondent memorial at the Willem C Vis Hong Kong round, which is a Tier 2 MPL competition.

Mukherjee said: "My experience is that this moot is very different from others as legal knowledge is presumed and there is a predominant emphasis on presentation skills."

With those points NUJS moved into the top 10 of the MPL with 18 points, tied with RGNUL Patiala at ninth and within touching distance of the top eight cash-prize ranks of the competition.

We are still confirming the full results of the Tier 3 Manfred Lachs Space Moot funding round that was held at NLSIU Bangalore.

The MPL is sponsored by Clifford Chance and the top eight ranked law colleges will share a generous prize fund of Rs 1.5 lakhs provided by the firm.

2009-10 Mooting Premier League rankings, sponsored by Clifford Chance