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NMC 2023: Marburg Students Exploring International Criminal Law in Practice

A conflict rages in the fictional Republic of Merty between the ethnic groups of the Merons and the Typhons. In the middle: Lieutenant Adelaide and her soldiers, accused of destroying historic museums, religious temples, and pilgrimage sites. Right in the thick of it: our Moot Court team this year, stepping into the roles of prosecutors and defense attorneys in the case The Prosecutor vs. Lieutenant Adelaide.

Das Marburger Team (v.l.n.r. Jasmin Schickel, Naima Hilleke, Fadua Zoaeter, Lavinia Fahnster) im Saal 600 des Nürnberger Justizpalastes

On July 19, 2023, four students from Marburg—Lavinia Fahnster, Naima Hilleke, Jasmin Schickel, and Fadua Zoaeter—set off for Nuremberg together with coordinators Franziska Gruber and Laura Burmeister. More than 75 years ago, the Nuremberg Trials had laid an important foundation for today’s international criminal law. Out of over 100 teams that had submitted briefs from both the prosecution and defense perspectives, 32 teams were invited to the Nuremberg Palace of Justice—the original venue of the Nuremberg Trials—to present their arguments in a fictional trial before the International Criminal Court, taking on the roles of either Lieutenant Adelaide’s defense or prosecution. Over three days, students from around the world—from Pune to Milan, from Nairobi to Melbourne—engaged in intense debates on jurisdiction, admissibility, and individual responsibility. In an exciting final, presided over by Bertram Schmitt, an actual judge at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, and set against the backdrop of the world-famous Courtroom 600, the students from Strathmore University in Nairobi ultimately prevailed over the team from Macquarie University in Sydney.

For the interdisciplinary Marburg team, their journey ended after two strong pleadings in the preliminary round of the competition. However, the Nuremberg Moot Court offered much more than just a legal contest of arguments. The event particularly emphasized interaction with other students as well as with national and international experts from the academic and practical fields of international criminal law, who served as the judging panel. After all, how often does one get the opportunity to meet experts who have worked at the International Criminal Court, the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia), or the Special Tribunal for Lebanon?

Das Marburger Team 2023 (in Begleitung von Franziska Gruber und Laura Burmeister) sowie das Team der University of Pune (Indien) auf Erkundungstour durch Nürnberg

Throughout the four-day event, all participants were able to gain fascinating insights into the world of international criminal law during and between the competition rounds, while also forming new international friendships—sometimes over Nuremberg sausages or mandarin quark cake with a view of the Nuremberg Imperial Castle.