FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tue 1-Jul-2008
Contact: Ron Brandsdorfer, Shearman & Sterling
(212-848-5081/ron.brandsdorfer@shearman.com)
Contact: Amity R. Boye, International Law Students Association/Jessup Cup
(312-362-5025/aboye@ilsa.org)
(Microsoft Word Version)
New York, July 1, 2008 – The International Law Students Association (ILSA) and Shearman & Sterling LLP have entered into an agreement through which the New York-based global law firm will serve as an official sponsor in the 50th anniversary year of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition. Shearman & Sterling will once again host two regional competitions – the US Northeast Super Regional and the French National Rounds – before Jessup’s main event, the 2009 Shearman & Sterling International Rounds in Washington, DC, next March.
The Jessup Cup is the world’s longest-standing, largest and most prestigious moot court competition focusing on public international law issues. This past year, more than 500 schools from over 80 countries participated in the competition, with 110 teams from 77 countries participating in the Shearman & Sterling International Rounds in Washington, DC.
“We are delighted that Shearman & Sterling, with its global reputation, will be partnering with us in our 50th year,” said Ambassador David Scheffer, Northwestern University Law Professor and Chairman of the Board of Directors of ILSA. “The Jessup Cup has been so successful in recent years due in large part to the outstanding support Shearman & Sterling has provided, for which all of us at ILSA are deeply grateful.”
“We are very pleased to be sponsoring the Jessup competition on the occasion of its 50th anniversary,” added Rohan S. Weerasinghe, senior partner at Shearman & Sterling, which has one the top-tier practices in Public International Law worldwide, led by Paris-based partner Yas Banifatemi. “We know that the thousands of law students from around the world who have participated in the Jessup Cup over the past 50 years have benefited greatly from Jessup’s promotion of international legal scholarship, the peaceful settlement of disputes and respect for the rule of law. We are delighted to have contributed to this effort for the past five years and to continue to do so in 2009.”
In the Jessup competition, students are required to present oral and written arguments on a hypothetical international law problem to a simulated International Court of Justice. The 2009 Jessup problem will be released in September 2008.
Shearman & Sterling has been sponsoring the Northeast Super Regional Rounds since 2004 and also sponsors the French National Rounds in Paris as well as the Shearman & Sterling International Rounds in Washington, DC. This year’s international rounds will include a 50th anniversary gala that will be attended by alumni of the competition and world leaders in the fields of international law and diplomacy.
ILSA and Shearman & Sterling officials say they look forward to the anniversary celebrations as an opportunity to reflect on the profound influence that the Jessup Competition has had on the international community over the past half-century. "For most of its 50 years, the Jessup Competition has done more than teach international law and advocacy, as important as that is,” said Steven Schneebaum, long-time ILSA Board Member and Chair of the Jessup Anniversary Committee. “It has also provided an opportunity for the next generation of international lawyers to get to know each other and to broaden their horizons as lawyers and as people.”
ILSA is a non-profit association of students and lawyers who are dedicated to the promotion of international law. ILSA provides students with opportunities to study, research and network in the international legal arena. The organization’s activities include academic conferences, publications, the global coordination of student organizations and the administration of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition.
[Shearman & Sterling LLP is a global law firm with approximately 900 lawyers in 19 offices in 12 countries. The firm is a leader in mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, project development and finance, asset management, tax, complex business litigation and international arbitration.]
[The International Law Students Association is pleased to announce that Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) has been selected as the host of the very first annual ILSA Summer Conference. The 2008 ILSA Summer Conference, entitled “Universalism and Regionalism in International Law,” will be held August 12-15, 2008, on the UFMG campus in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.]