site.btaSofia’s 2nd English Language School Wins Moot Court Competition in Romania

The Thomas Jefferson 2nd English Language School of Sofia won first place in the 6th International Moot Court Competition in Romania, organized by Foundation Netherlands-Romania, the teacher’s college in Campulung, Romania and the Justice Resource Center in New York, the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science reported on Tuesday. Eight groups of high-school students from the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania took part in the event.

During the competition, students of second high-school level presented court trial simulations on cases related to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. It required in-depth training on the ICC Rome Statute and involved compiling a prosecution speech and a defence plea in English in a human rights case. Work on the case required the use of concrete facts, legal norms and specific legal terminology. This was intended to encourage the students to think analytically and develop their skills of argumentation and communication in a foreign language while working in a team.

Each group was divided into prosecution and defence, and worked in the presence of a jury of practicing judges chaired by Alphons Orie, a judge at the ICC. In the Bulgarian group, the prosecution comprised Bozhana Noeva, Boryana Antikova and Ivaya Boicheva, and the defence was assigned to Yoan Lyubenov, Lidia Velkova and Silvia Alexandrova. Their “law office” was headed by Maria Metodieva, chief English teacher at their school.

In the final, 2nd English Language School of Sofia prevailed over the Romanian group.