Learning experience becomes the key for national round of Philip C. Jessup Law Moot Court which was held in UPH Lippo Village on February 1st to 3rd, 2019.

As a host, UPH has been trusted to manage the prestigious competition. UPH has successfully generate revolutionary ideas and freshened up this 17 years old competition.

The Faculty of Law of Universitas Pelita Harapan (FH UPH) felt very honored to be chosen as the host, or the head committee for the National Round of Philip C. Jessup Law Moot Court which was held from February 1-3, 2019, in UPH Karawaci. Through this opportunity, Tiffany Revilia Jonan, a student of FH UPH batch 2016, as the head committee or the National Administration team, has successfully imply a new strategy in the National Round Jessup with the Learning Experience method. Learning Experience was realized through a seminar held as the opening of the competition. The seminar was held in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building with Dr. Ir. Damos Dumoli Agusman, S.H., M.A., Director General for International Law and Treaties of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia, who was present at the event and talked about international law.

Aside from that, Learning Experience can also be felt by the observers who were present. This year, there was way more observer compared to last year’s event, there were 80 observers from 17 universities. Observers are not the same as competitors, they do not compete but observer the competition and the competitors. Most of the time, observers are participants who have never participated in a Jessup competition before; thus, hopefully they will become competitors net year.

Aside from feeling really honored to be chosen as host and head of National Administration team, UPH was also very grateful for a number of award given to its team, they are ‘Best Combined Memorial’ and ‘Best Oralist’, which was gotten by Michael Amos Djohan, Faculty of Law batch 2016.

All the hard work that has been done by the team was also shared by Athalia Soemarko, as the Director of ISIL (Indonesian Society of International Law).

“To become host of the Jessup competition, UPH has to go through a long process. At the end of every Jessup, an opportunity is given to all university to send their proposal to become host for the next Jessup. University representative has to send a proposal and do an interview. From those two steps, UPH was seen as the most potential one. ISIL believes that the readiness of prospective names of students who will become the national administrator and core team as proposed by the faculty, should be seen from their experience in the previous Jessup. Tiffany as national administrator and core team was seen to meet those expectations. From the interview step, ISIL asked each prospective committee member about what they want to make and what kind of ideas will they propose. UPH was able to show its revolutionary idea, with the opening event in the Ministry of International Affairs, by inviting Director General Dr. Ir. Damos as key speaker. “UPH has been doing a great work,” said Athalia.
The Philip C. Jessup International Round is an extremely prestigious competition especially in Indonesia. Both Athalia and Tiffany also emphasized that this competition is one of the biggest events which has always been targeted by students of Law Faculty all over Indonesia. With the ration of 1:8, each year, Indonesia is able to send two winners of the national round for the international round.
Becoming the host of a prestigious competition has become a benefit for UPH. Tiffany said that the networking aspect is one with the biggest impact. According to her, through this event, she and the whole committee was able to meet a variety of people. Starting from students of other universities, up to the opportunity to collaborate with national and international institution such as ISIL and ILSA (International Law Students’ Association), law practitioner and academician. Hopefully, through this networking, UPH’s mooting community can grow even more.
In addition, Irsan, as the representative of the Faculty of Law of Universitas Padjadjaran, said that he hopes that through Jessup 2019, which brought up the issues of ‘Cultural Rights’, both competitor and observer are all able to gain more knowledge and insight about international law and the discussion related to the current issues. This year, Universitas Padajajaran has also been chosen to become the vice national administrator to accompany UPH.
At the end of the National Round Jessup, Universitas Indonesia came out as the first winner while Universitas Airlangga was chosen as the second winner. The two teams will be representing Indonesia for the Philip C. Jessup International Round in Washington DC on March 31 to April 6, 2019. (mt)