The 4th Caribbean-China International Law Moot Court Competition was held online from June 10 to 11. The Competition was co-sponsored by China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL) and The University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus, Barbados (UWI Cave Hill), and was organized by the School of International Law of CUPL.
The opening ceremony of the competition was held virtually in the morning of June 10. CUPL President Ma Huaide and UWI Cave Hill Principal Clive Landis attended the opening ceremony online, along with David Bulbulia, Foreign Co-Director of the Confucius Institute at the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill, Barbados (CI at UWI, Cave Hill), and heads of relevant administrative offices. The opening ceremony was be presided over by Zhu Lijiang, Vice Dean of the School of International Law of CUPL.
On behalf of CUPL, President Ma Huaide extended his sincere greetings and heartfelt thanks to the judges, teachers and students participating in the online competition. He pointed out that since its establishment in 2015, the CI at UWI, Cave Hill had achieved fruitful results in many aspects, expanding the cooperation between the two universities in many fields and enhancing people-to-people exchanges between China and Barbados. The Caribbean-China International Law Moot Court Competition is an important progress reflecting the furtherance of the cooperation between the two universities via the platform of the CI. This year marked the 70th birthday of CUPL. The teachers and students from the two universities had overcome great difficulties in staging the copetition online for the first time. The competition is a precious gift to CUPL and also one of the special activities to celebrate CUPL’s 70th birthday. President Ma also expects that the two universities would continue to strengthen bilateral exchanges and cooperation and harvest more achievements, thus making greater contributions to language and cultural exchanges between China and Barbados.
Prof. Clive Landis extended his warm congratulations to CUPL’s 70th birthday. He said that the moot court competition coincided with CUPL’s birthday, and that it means a lot that UWI Cave Hill participated in the celebrations as a partner of the CI at Barbados. Reviewing the responsibilities and achievements of the CI since its establishment, Clive highlighted its significant role in facilitating the cooperation and communication between the two universities and expressed thanks to the organizing team for their great contribution and to the competitors for their enthusiasm.
Then, Prof. David Berry and Prof. Li Juqian delivered a short speech respectively, in which they reviewed past competitions and wished this year’s competition be a complete success.
After the opening ceremony, the moot court competition officially began. After the two-day oral rounds, the first team from UWI Cave Hill was crowned the champion, the first team from CUPL won the Best Instrument Award, and the second team from UWI Cave Hill and the second team from CUPL won the Spirit Award, Li Yijia from CUPL won the title of the best debater in the preliminary round; and Barrow Rawletta from UWI Cave Hill won the title of the best debater in the final round.
The morning of June 11 witnessed the closing ceremony which was presided over by Prof. Zhu Lijiang, Deputy Dean of the School of International Law, CUPL, and attended online by Prof. Kong Qingjiang, Dean of the School of International Law, CUPL, judges, students and teachers participating in this competition. Prof. Kong Qingjiang presented awards to all the winning competitors and teams.
The Caribbean-China International Law Moot Court Competition was organized by the Confucius Institute jointly funded and operated by CUPL and UWI Cave Hill. The first competition took place in 2017 in Barbados and was hosted by UWI Cave Hill. As the competition is held in English, it aims to enhance the exchanges between CUPL and Caribbean countries and to boost the international initiative and the cultivation of foreign-related legal talents of CUPL.
