The Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition or Lachs Space Moot is a

space law Space law is the body of law governing space-related activities, encompassing both international and domestic agreements, rules, and principles. Parameters of space law include space exploration, liability for damage, weapons use, rescue efforts ...

moot competition organised by the

International Institute of Space Law The International Astronautical Federation (IAF) is an international space advocacy organization based in Paris, and founded in 1951 as a non-governmental organization to establish a dialogue between scientists around the world and to lay t ...

. The competition is named after

Manfred Lachs Manfred Lachs (21 April 1914 – 14 January 1993) was a Polish diplomat and jurist who served as a Judge of the International Court of Justice and greatly influenced the development of international law after World War II. Life Lachs was born ...

, a former judge of the

International Court of Justice The International Court of Justice (ICJ; , CIJ), or colloquially the World Court, is the only international court that Adjudication, adjudicates general disputes between nations, and gives advisory opinions on International law, internation ...

. It is the oldest student competition in the area of

, with the first edition of the moot taking place in 1993. In recent years the moot has been held during the

International Astronautical Congress The International Astronautical Congress (IAC) is an annual meeting of the actors in the discipline of space science. It is hosted by one of the national society members of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), with the support of ...

and Colloquium of the IISL. As the class-leading moot in its field and given its scale, the Lachs Moot is considered one of the major or grand slam moots. In 2011, another space law moot came about, organised by the International Air & Space Law Academy. It is a different moot that is much smaller in scale, and has since become defunct. In addition to national rounds for certain countries, five regional competitions have been held for the Lachs Moot to date—Africa (introduced in 2012), Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America (introduced in 2021), and North America—with the winners of each region proceeding to the world or international finals at a venue that changes every year (depending on where the

is held); the world championship round is typically judged by three sitting ICJ judges. For a period of time, the regional and world rounds were held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In each oral round of the moot there is an applicant and a respondent, and each side is represented by two counsel (of counsel cannot be seated together). Each team also has to submit written memorials for both sides. These memorials are re-evaluated during the world rounds.

Competition records (world rounds)

References

{{International moot court competitions Moot court competitions