Dorina Bosits, Virág Herold and Balázs Zsuppán, students of the Deák Ferenc Faculty of Law and Political Sciences of the Széchenyi István University, reached the semi-finals of the "Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition" and came third in the European regional round of the competition. This is the seventh consecutive year that students from the faculty have achieved success in this prestigious international competition.
During the competition, which has been running for more than three decades, teams compete in the first round of the regional rounds in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, North America and Latin America. The winners of the regional rounds advance to the world finals. This year, the European regional round was held in Paris from 31 March to 4 April 2025, at the HQ of the European Space Agency.
The competition involves a debate between two imaginary states before the International Court of Justice. This year's case focused on the use of telecommunications satellites during armed conflict, the leasing and electronic interference of satellite telecommunications services, the operations and interception of satellites in close proximity to each other, and the issues of compensation for damages arising from the events.
Over a period of seven months, the students from Győr prepared written submissions in English, each of almost 70 pages, from the two States. These memorials closely mirror the form, content and tone of the submissions made by the States to the International Court of Justice. The preparation of these detailed pleadings demanded not only a comprehensive understanding of international law, law of armed conflicts and space law, but also a thorough examination of the case law of international judicial fora and a fundamental technical knowledge of satellite transponders and satellite communications interference.
The students of the faculty then presented the pleadings of the applicant and the respondent state in the oral round. Each team of competitors presented their arguments to the three-member panel of judges and answered questions in a total of four hearings, each lasting almost one and a half hours.
The team demonstrated an excellent performance, securing a spot in the semi-finals with the second-highest score. In the semi-finals, they faced the students from the University of Luxembourg. The team from Győr finished in third place on aggregate and won the special prize for the flawless written submission. The competition was won by the team of Luxembourg, who competed against the team from the University of Vienna in the final.
The team of Győr was coached by Gábor Sulyok, full professor (coach/faculty advisor) and Mónika Ganczer, assistant professor (assistant coach/assistant faculty advisor) of the Department of International and European Law, with support from Barbara Horváth and Júlia Orsolya Erős, doctoral candidates.
More information about the competition: https://iisl.space/about-the-manfred-lachs-space-law-moot-court-competition
