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Rules of Procedure: of The 2020 International Criminal Court Moot Court Competition
Rules of Procedure: of The 2020 International Criminal Court Moot Court Competition
of the
2020 International Criminal Court Moot Court Competition
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Table of Contents
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Art. 27 - Front Cover Requirements ..................................................................................... 12
Art. 28 - Footnotes ................................................................................................................ 12
Art. 29 - Scoring Structure Memorials ................................................................................. 12
Art. 30 - Plagiarism .............................................................................................................. 12
Art. 31 - Memorial Penalties ................................................................................................ 13
Chapter 7: Oral Round Provisions ....................................................................................... 13
Art. 32 – General procedures ................................................................................................ 13
Art. 33 – Order of Appearance and Time Division .............................................................. 13
Art. 34 - Speakers ................................................................................................................. 13
Art. 35 - Communication ...................................................................................................... 14
Art. 36 - Bench Composition ................................................................................................ 14
Art. 37 - Role of the Bench Clerk ......................................................................................... 15
Art. 38 - Scoring ................................................................................................................... 15
Art. 39 - Penalties for Inappropriate Behaviour ................................................................... 15
Art 40 - Recording of the Hearing ........................................................................................ 15
Art. 41 - Scouting ................................................................................................................. 15
Chapter 8: The Awards ......................................................................................................... 15
Art. 42 - Categories of the Awards ....................................................................................... 16
Chapter 9 – Friendly Rounds ................................................................................................ 17
Annex: World Bank List of Economies…………………………………………………….18
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Chapter 1: General Rules
Art. 1 – Organization
a. The International Criminal Court Moot Court Competition (hereinafter “the
Competition”), consisting of the Preliminary Round, Quarter-final Round, and Semi-
final Round, is organized by the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies –
Leiden University, in partnership with the International Bar Association (IBA)
(www.iccmoot.com).
b. All materials developed by the Organizing Committee and Board of Advisors of the
Competition, including, without limitation, the Rules of Procedure and the
Competition Case, are the sole property of the ICCMCC. These materials may not be
reproduced for any purpose other than participation in or administration of the
Competition without the express and prior written consent of the Board of Advisors of
the Competition.
c. The Final Round of the Competition will, if possible, be organized by the International
Criminal Court and it will be held at the seat of the ICC in The Hague.
Art. 2 - Object
The present rules (“Rules”) govern the International Criminal Court (“ICC”) Moot Court
Competition 2020 (hereinafter “the Competition”), held in the English language, organized by
the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies – Leiden University (hereinafter “the
Organization”), in partnership with the International Bar Association (IBA).
Art. 3 - Subject
All teams participating in the Competition are presumed to have knowledge of and shall be
subject to these Rules.
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Chapter 2: Participation and Eligibility
Art. 6 - Participation
Each country and the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau may be
represented by a maximum of four (4) teams, in case twenty-four (24) or more universities
from the same country register and participate in a Qualifying Round for the Competition. In
case twelve (12) or more universities (but less than twenty-four (24) universities) from the
same country register and participate in a Qualifying Round for the Competition, three (3)
teams may represent their country at the International Round of the Competition. If less than
twelve (12) universities of the same country register and participate in a Qualifying Round, a
maximum of two (2) teams may represent their country at the International Rounds of the
Competition.
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d. Teams that require a visa to visit the Netherlands must submit a copy of the visas of
the three speakers prior to 4 May 2020, 2pm (CET). If a team fails to submit a copy
of their visa before the deadline, its registration will be canceled.
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e. Participating teams must submit the names, contact details, position and affiliation of
their nominees by 31 January 2020 at the latest. The Organization may waive a
team’s duty to nominate panel members, or lift the restriction to nominate a faculty
member upon receiving a written request from the team. The authority and discretion
to grant waivers lies entirely with the Organization.
f. Non-compliance with this article will result in 10 penalty points, to be deducted from
the nominating team’s total memorial score.
g. The Organization shall also invite duly qualified persons to act as members of the
International Panel of Evaluation.
Art. 16 – Eligibility
a. The Organization will determine the eligibility of persons to serve as judges in the
Competition.
b. A person may act as a judge if he/she holds at least a Master’s degree in law in any
jurisdiction, or a Master’s degree in an international law-related field. Experience in
the practice of law is accepted in lieu of a Master’s degree.
c. A Judge may in no way be affiliated with a team participating in the Competition.
d. A(n) (Assistant) Coach of a participating team can under no circumstance be
appointed as a Judge.
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Art. 18 - Preliminary Round
a. The Preliminary Round of the Competition shall consist of two (2) consecutive
phases, each independently graded: a written round (Memorials) and an oral round
(Hearings).
b. Each team shall address the Case in the roles of the Defense Counsel, Counsel for the
Prosecution, and Counsel for the Government (Government Counsel), and shall
submit one Memorial per role.
c. Each team shall participate in six (6) Hearings before the Bench in the roles of
Defense Counsel, Counsel for the Prosecution, and Government Counsel. (Twice per
role.)
d. The written and oral phase of the Preliminary Round are independently assessed. The
sum of the scores obtained in both phases after the deduction of any penalty points
will qualify the twenty-seven (27) best teams for Quarter-final Rounds. Both phases,
the written and oral round, count for 50% of the total score each. If two or more teams
rank number 27, the team with the highest total score in the oral phase of the
Preliminary-Round will proceed to the Quarter-finals.
d. To decide who will be playing which role, designated team members of the qualified
teams will select one envelope out of three envelopes provided by the Organization.
Every envelope will contain a different role. The role mentioned in the envelope the
designated team member draws, is the role that team will be playing in the Quarter-
final Round.
e. The teams are free to choose which of their three speakers will represent their team at
the Quarter-final Round. They are not bound by the role the speakers represented in
the Preliminary-Round.
f. The winning team of each of the nine (9) match-ups shall be decided by majority vote
of the judges. No ties are allowed. The winning team in each match-up of the Quarter-
final Round will advance to the Semi-final Round.
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b. Submission must occur in a single email message with all three (3) Memorials
attached as separate files titled “##D”; “##P” and “##G”, respectively (where “##”is
the official number assigned to the team). Failure to comply with this provision will be
penalized with one (1) penalty point per violation, with a maximum of four (4) penalty
points.
c. Each team must submit its Memorials in both Microsoft Word and Pdf. format. Failure
to do so will be penalized with two (2) penalty points.
d. The organizers of the National and Regional Rounds will submit the Memorials of the
participating teams to the Organization, without giving the qualified teams the
opportunity to change the memorials after their participation in the National or
Regional Round.
Art. 28 - Footnotes
a. Footnotes have to be in Times New Roman font style, size 10 font. Footnotes of more
than one line in length must be single spaced.
b. Spacing between each footnote shall be 1.5 lines.
c. Consistency in the reference to sources throughout the Memorial is required. A
referred-to document should be easy to find using the footnote.
d. All the sources included in the index of authorities, must be included in the footnotes
as well.
e. Abbreviations of sources within footnotes are allowed. The abbreviation has to be
announced in the index of authorities.
f. Violations of this article are sanctioned with two (2) penalty points per violation. More
than one violation of the same item of this Article should be considered as one
violation in total.
Art. 30 - Plagiarism
Plagiarism in Memorials will be sanctioned with the disqualification of the team. A team’s
disqualification is final and irrevocable.
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Art. 31 - Memorial Penalties
a. Memorial Penalties shall be deducted from each of the individual evaluators' scores of
a team's Memorial.
b. The Organization shall notify all teams on 4 May 2020 at the latest about their
penalty points. Any written appeals against the decision to impose penalties should be
submitted prior to 11 May 2020.
Art. 34 - Speakers
a. Each team will have three (3) individual speakers. Every individual speaker of a team
will represent in their pleadings the Defense Counsel, or the Counsel for the
Prosecution or the Government Counsel. The rebuttal must be presented by the same
speaker as the main presentation. Researchers are not allowed to present at any stage
of the Competition.
b. Each team must submit the role allocation within the team by 4 May 2020 at the
latest (i.e. Team member X will undertake X role). Failure to do so will be sanctioned
with 20 points.
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c. Only two members of each team, two speakers, or one speaker and one researcher, are
allowed to be present before the Bench. The person acting as co-counsel need not be
the same person in each Hearing.
d. Each speaker will present in accordance with the time allocated under Article 28.
e. Objections are under no circumstances allowed at any moment during the proceedings.
f. Verbatim reading of the Memorials during the Hearings is strictly prohibited.
Art. 35 - Communication
a. Communication between the speakers and the coaches, team members not presenting,
or Competition spectators, is strictly prohibited during the Hearings.
b. Only those present before the bench are permitted to communicate with each other, as
long as they do not hinder the person presenting at that moment. Communication
between co-counsels is not allowed during the team’s own presentation.
c. The use of laptops, mobile phones, or any other electric device by the speakers is
strictly prohibited during the Hearings, also when these items are solely used for
measuring time. Speakers are allowed to use a watch ONLY. An exception can be
made by the Organization for exceptional circumstances.
d. Violations of this article are sanctioned with a maximum of 50 points. It is up to the
discretion of the Bench Members, taking into account the seriousness and
consequences of the violation, how many penalty points (with a maximum of 50
points) will be deducted.
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Art. 37 - Role of the Bench Clerk
a. The Bench Clerk is nominated by the Organization.
b. The Bench Clerk is responsible for:
i. the collection of the score sheets and their delivery to the Organization;
ii. briefing and advising the Bench Members on the Rules of Procedure contained herein;
iii. keeping the order during the Hearing;
iv. facilitating the sessions’ development;
v. timekeeping.
Art. 38 - Scoring
a. Scores are rewarded out of a maximum of 100 points for the overall performance of
the team during each pleading. The presentation and the rebuttal shall be awarded with
one score only.
b. Points are allocated as follows:
i. Organization, structure and time management: max 20 points.
ii. Knowledge and use of rules and principles of law: max 20 points.
iii. Knowledge and use of the facts: max 20 points.
iv. Questions and rebuttal: max 20 points.
v. Persuasiveness and style of presentation: max 20 points.
c. Score sheets will be emailed to each team upon the cessation of the Competition.
Art. 41 - Scouting
a. Scouting is forbidden at all times during the Competition.
b. Scouting is defined as:
i. when a team or one or more of its members attend a Hearing in which they are not
participants;
ii. instances where students, coaches or spectators discuss with or pose questions of
substantive issues of international (criminal) law to the Judges.
c. Violations of this article will result in disqualification. A team’s disqualification is
final and irrevocable
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Art. 42 - Categories of the Awards
a. The following awards will be given by the ICC after the Final Round:
i. Winner;
ii. First Runner-up;
iii. Second Runner-up;
iv. Best Oralist.
b. The following awards will be given by the Organization:
i. Best Defense Counsel Memorial;
ii. First Runner-up Best Defense Counsel Memorial;
iii. Second Runner-up Best Defense Counsel Memorial;
iv. Best Prosecution Memorial;
v. First Runner-up Best Prosecution Memorial;
vi. Second Runner-up Best Prosecution Memorial;
vii. Best Government Counsel Memorial;
viii. First Runner-up Best Government Counsel Memorial;
ix. Second Runner-up Best Government Counsel Memorial;
x. Best Defense Counsel Team (The team with the highest total score awarded in the
written and oral round of the Preliminary-Rounds to the Defense Counsel);
xi. Best Prosecutor Team (The team with the highest total score awarded in the written
and oral round of the Preliminary-Rounds to the Prosecution);
xii. Best Government Counsel Team (The team with the highest total score awarded in the
written and oral round of the Preliminary-Rounds to the Government Counsel);
xiii. Winner Best Defense Counsel (The speaker with the highest average score awarded to
the Defense Counsel in the oral rounds of the Preliminary-Rounds);
xiv. First Runner-up Best Defense Counsel (The speaker with the second highest average
score awarded to the Defense Counsel in the oral rounds of the Preliminary-Rounds);
xv. Second Runner-up Best Defense Counsel (The speaker with the third highest average
score awarded to the Defense Counsel in the oral rounds of the Preliminary-Rounds);
xvi. Winner Best Prosecutor (The speaker with the highest average score awarded to the
Prosecution in the oral rounds of the Preliminary-Rounds);
xvii. First Runner-up Best Prosecutor (The speaker with the second highest average score
awarded to the Prosecution in the oral rounds of the Preliminary-Rounds);
xviii. Second Runner-up Best Prosecutor (The speaker with the third highest average score
awarded to the Prosecution in the oral rounds of the Preliminary-Rounds);
xix. Winner Best Government Counsel (The speaker with the highest average score
awarded to the Government Counsel in the oral rounds of the Preliminary-Rounds);
xx. First Runner-up Best Government Counsel (The speaker with the second highest
average score awarded to the Government Counsel in the oral rounds of the
Preliminary-Rounds);
xxi. Second Runner-up Best Government Counsel (The speaker with the third highest
average score awarded to the Government Counsel in the oral rounds of the
Preliminary-Rounds);
xxii. Best Oralist of the Preliminary Rounds (Speakers are only eligible to win the Best
Oralist award if they did at least two presentations and two rebuttals);
xxiii. Best Non-Native English Speaking Team (A team is considered ‘non-native’ if at least
two out of the three participating speakers are nationals of a non-English speaking
country); and
xxiv. Honorable Mention: For those who have demonstrated perseverance in the face of
challenge. The winner of the Honorable Mention award is selected by the participants.
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c. Upon completion of the entire program, each participant shall receive a certificate of
participation.
a. Friendly rounds and exchange of memorial are completely prohibited unless approved
by the Organization. Please contact the Organization if you wish to
organize/participate in friendly rounds.
b. Only teams that do not participate in a National/Regional Round will be permitted to
organize/participate in Friendly Rounds.
c. Separate Rules of Procedure will be made available for Friendly Rounds.
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Annex: World Bank List of Economies (June 2019)
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