By Himena Miyashita
On 9th October, 2024, members of our International Law Hub participated in an online networking session with the National Taiwan University (NTU) IHL team.
(Screenshot taken during the meeting. *Not all participants are shown)
The UTokyo and NTU teams met in person at the Asia Pacific Regional IHL Moot Court Competition in Hong Kong, 2023. Subsequently, communications between the student coaches of both teams for the organization of a virtual meeting began in November 2023. However, due to conflicting university schedules and the concern that a meeting between the teams prior to the Asia Pacific IHL Moot Court Competition in early 2024 may pose a conflict of interest, the session had been postponed to a later date. Coordinations resumed after the competition, with the meeting finally taking place in October 2024.
Despite the long wait, the delayed meeting had the fortunate advantage of being able to include newly recruited members of the respective teams. Thus, with the presence of students of differing levels of experience in IHL competitions, a fruitful discussion on various topics related to the competitions was made possible.
Main topics of conversation included each participants’ background in IHL and reason for participating in the competitions. Both teams were also curious about how their counterparts go about preparing for the competitions. With most UTokyo members being non-Law students, and the NTU team in contrast being fully composed of Law students, there were some variations in methods of learning, memorial-writing, and oral pleading practices. For example, the NTU team makes use of a specific IHL textbook as a main introduction to the field, thus a grounded foundation in IHL is established before further research into the topics under the moot problem begins. This may be influenced by their preexisting experience in legal studies. On the other hand, for the UTokyo team, while a general understanding of IHL is gained through introductory seminars, the team tends to jump right into addressing the moot problem and writing the memorials, thus mainly focusing on acquiring IHL knowledge most relevant to the competition.
There were also differences in how participating in the competitions influenced the trajectories of the members regarding their future involvement with IHL. Since NTU members are set on the paths to becoming lawyers, most members tend to focus on studying for their bar exams after the competitions, which do not include the field of IHL. Contrastingly, most UTokyo members follow a Liberal Arts program, meaning that they only discover their academic passions upon joining IHL competitions and gaining a newfound appreciation for international law studies. Many UTokyo members also tend to come from international relations studies or are active in social justice projects, allowing IHL to be strongly complementary to their existing studies or co-curricular activities. Thus, alumni have gone on to master’s programs relevant to international legal studies, or have pursued humanitarian careers.
Despite these differences, both teams agreed on the importance of spreading the word of IHL in their communities. There were discussions on how the relevance of IHL could be recognised in various present-day conflicts around the world, and how IHL also continues to be crucial in keeping peaceful relations even in our continent. There was an exchange of insights into how the activities of each team have been broadcast to wider audiences to spread the word of IHL and to recruit more members. UTokyo continues to utilize the International Law Hub channel to share their activities and research in international law. Both teams are eager to continue communications in the future to deepen the relationship between UTokyo and NTU, and to further expand the IHL network with time.
The UTokyo team would once again like to thank the NTU team for the pleasant and meaningful session, and is looking forward to meeting them again.
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