About
The Hamilton Lugar / ILSA Undergraduate International Law Moot Court Competition is a simulation of oral argument before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Teams argue both sides in a fictional dispute between two countries. Colleges and universities can enter up to five teams of two students apiece.
The Competition is open to undergraduate students in the United States and Canada. It is co-hosted and co-administered by the Hamilton Lugar School of Global & International Studies at Indiana University.
The Competition is based upon the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, which ILSA has administered annually since 1959. Now in its 67th year, the Jessup Competition is the largest competition in the world for law students, with more than 800 schools in 106 countries last year.
The 2026 Competition will take place 26 Feb-1 Mar at Indiana University Bloomington in Bloomington, IN. The Registration fee is $250 for the first team registered from a given school, and $200 for each team thereafter. Spots are limited. The deadline for registration is 1 December 2025.
Please email [email protected] if you have any questions.
Further details about the Competition will be released shortly, including competition schedule.
Rules
Team Resources
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These materials are taken from the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition. Nonetheless, we feel that they may still be of a benefit to teams competing in the Hamilton Lugar / ILSA Undergraduate International Law Moot Court Competition.
General
This Introduction to International Law is a short document explaining the basic doctrines of international law. ILSA would like to acknowledge and thank Professor Robert Beckman of the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore, who provided this document to ILSA for the benefit of Jessup teams and judges. Thanks are also owed to Dagmar Butte, ILSA Board Member, for helping Professor Beckman draft the Introduction.
The White & Case Jessup Guide is a student-focused "how-to" manual for the Jessup Competition. The Guide contains information on: working with the Compromis, researching international law, writing Memorials, devising oral pleadings, and using skills learned from the Jessup in your legal career. The guide also contains video clips demonstrating good oral advocacy techniques.
The 2015 CIICJ Guide to the Philip C. Jessup Moot Court Competition was written to offer students a general plan for competing in the Jessup. Published by the Chinese Initiative on International Criminal Justice (CIICJ), the guide was written and edited by a group of former competitors and academics. Among the competitors who contributed to this guide are past National Rounds winners, International Rounds winners, Best Oralist recipients, and Hardy C. Dillard Award recipients. Further contributors include academics, practicing international lawyers, team coaches and advisors, and long-time Friends of the Jessup.
This major online reference work contains 1,700+ peer-reviewed articles on every aspect of the substance of international law. Written by an incomparable team of over 900 scholars and practitioners led by Professor Anne Peters, this comprehensive resource is essential for anyone researching or teaching international law. It was founded in 2004 by Rüdiger Wolfrum, building on the prior encyclopedia published by Rudolf Bernhardt from 1981 to 2003.
Daniel Schwarcz from the University of Minnesota Law School gives advice on how Jessup Teams can use AI most effectively. Prof Schwarcz has written extensively about the intersection of AI and law.
Oral Rounds
The Final Round of the International Rounds pits the top two teams in the world against each other after multiple matches in which they have honed their arguments to the most nuanced touch. These rounds are often highly instructive to teams who wish to learn how to best deliver an oral round. ILSA has made all final rounds since 2000 available for streaming on our YouTube page.
Hosted in 2023, this video brings together three veteran expert judges discussing the dos and don'ts of oral arguments.
Coaching
This document is intended to assist team coaches, in particular new coaches, by setting out some “best practices” regarding coaching in the Jessup Competition.
Atithep Meas of Cambodia walks coaches through a Jessup season and gives tips on how to best prepare for the competition.
Coaches from Cooley Law School break down their process for competing in the Jessup.
Jessup Coaching Forums
A panel of experienced Jessup coaches provide their insights into how to successfully coach a Jessup team.
Fritz Kainz explains how to prepare for Jessup oral rounds.
Competition Venue
All moot court events will be either in the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies or in the Indiana Memorial Union building. Both are situated on IU's main campus.
Tentative Schedule
| Date | Itinerary |
| Thursday, February 26 | Teams arrive in Bloomington Informal dinner for participants |
| Friday, February 27 | Preliminary Round matches throughout the day |
| Saturday, February 28 | Preliminary Round matches in the morning and afternoon, followed by Advanced Round arguments in the afternoon and evening |
| Sunday, March 1 | Advanced Round matches continue, culminating with the Championship Round |
Travel to Bloomington
Teams that will be driving to Bloomington should notify the organizers so that we can provide temporary parking passes.
For those traveling by air, the closest major airport is Indianapolis, which is an hour’s drive from Bloomington. There is a regular shuttle available from the airport to the IU campus.
Hotel Accommodations
Blocks of rooms have been reserved for participants at the following hotels in Bloomington.
Homewood Suites by Hilton
Courtyard by Marriott
Home2 Suites
Please indicate that you are part of the Moot Court competition when reserving rooms.
Meals
An informal dinner will be provided to all competitors on Thursday evening. There will be a more formal dinner on Saturday evenings. Coffee, tea, and light refreshments will be available during the competition.
Basic Materials
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These Basic Materials are intended to give teams a strong foundation with which to begin their research. Teams are not limited to these materials and are strongly encouraged to go beyond them in their research for the Competition. ILSA may update this list on an ad hoc basis.
2017 Jessup Competition Materials
The 2025 ILSA Hamilton Lugar official problem is derived from the facts underlying the 2017 Jessup Compromis, The Case Concerning the Sisters of the Sun. As a consequence, the following materials are made available to competitors (with the twin cautions that (1) the facts of this case are in many ways different than the Sisters of the Sun, and (2) international law has developed since these documents were written).
- Bench Memorandum of the 2017 Jessup Competition
- Best Applicant Memorial of the 2017 Jessup Competition (University of the Philippines)
- Best Respondent Memorial of the 2017 Jessup Competition (University of Queensland, Australia)
Treaties
- UN Charter
- ICJ Statute
- Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
- International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
- 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property
- 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects
Cases and Awards
U.N. Documents and Other Materials
- Articles of Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts
- UN General Assembly Resolution 63/124 (Draft Articles of Transboundary Aquifers)
- UN Guiding Principles of Unilateral Declarations
- UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
- Advisory Note, Repatriation Request for the Yaqui Maaso Kova, U.N. Human Rights Council, Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (16 June 2020)
- Miles Jackson and Federica Paddeu, The Countermeasures of Others: When Can States Collaborate in the Taking of Countermeasures?, 118 AJIL 231 (2024)
- Gabriel Eckstein, International Law for Transboundary Aquifers: A Challenge for Our Times, 115 AJIL Unbound 201 (2021)
