KU Leuven wins the case
KU Leuven is the ultimate winner of the European Law Moot Court, the most prestigious international mooting competition around European Union law. The team from Leuven were the winners in the final between the four remaining teams, from the universities of Leiden, Liège and Maastricht. Leuven also managed to claim the trophy for the best advocate-general.
The European Law Moot Court is an annual competition in which seventy universities from Europe and beyond go head to head. In participating the students take on a complex problem in European law. This year, the case to be argued dealt with the complex relationship between European state aid rules and European regulations in public procurement. Reinout Leys, Pieter-Jan Denys, Margot Dons and Matthias Schelkens, all final year students in the law faculty at KU Leuven, were the best in their analysis and defense of the case.
Not only is a good knowledge of European law a must, but language skills are also essential, as students need to present their arguments in both English and French.
In addition to the main prize for the best team, prizes were also awarded for the best representative of the European Commission, the best written work and the best advocate-general. This particular prize was also awarded to a student from Leuven: Matthias Schelkens. The students were coached by Tomasz Kozieł and Tim Corthaut, from the department of International and European law.
This year KU Leuven have also, once again, been successful in achieving excellent results in other international competitions. They came 5th in the Phillip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, and 2nd in the International and European Tax Law Moot Court.