From May 27th to June 2nd , 2018, the 2018 International Criminal Court Moot Court Competition was held in The Hague, the Netherlands. The Wuhan University team won the qualification to go to The Hague to participate in the international competition with the outstanding results of the third place in the domestic selection competition. The competition was jointly organized by The Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies of Leiden University and the International Bar Association. 73 teams from 42 countries and regions around the world. Participated in the competition, including Leiden University, Temple University, the University of New South Wales, the University of Ottawa, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the University of Paris. The Wuhan University team advanced to the global top 27 in the international competition and entered the quarterfinals. The result of this competition is the best result since the Wuhan University team participated in the competition. It fully demonstrates that students from Wuhan University have the solid international law knowledge of Wuhan University students, fluent English expression, outstanding personal ability and good spirit of solidarity and cooperation,  reflecting excellent teaching results and deep academic accumulation of the Law School and the Institute of International Law.

The Wuhan University team, with the support of the Law School and the Institute of International Law, recruited members from the school in October 2017. Professor Feng Jiehan from the Institute of International Law served as the head coach, and Ph.D of 2016 grade major in International Law of Law School, Qiu Huixin, Dong Fangyun, a graduate student at the International Education Institute of 2016 grade, is the executive coach. The participants include Xu Zhenmian, an undergraduate student of the 2014 grade pf law school, Jin Lumin, an undergraduate student of the 2014 grade of law school, Mao Yunying, a master of environmental law of 2016 grade of  law school, and Zhao Youlin, a master student of Institute of Boundary and Ocean Studies of 2016 grade. Among them,  Xu Zhenmian, Jin Lumin and Mao Wei served as the defense lawyer, prosecution lawyer and victim lawyer spokesperson respectively while, Zhao Youlin and Dong Fangyun served as research fellows.

In the six rounds of competitions held from May 28th to 30th, our team fought fiercely with Temple University and the University of Macau etc. Relied on solid legal foundation, clear argumentation and the in-depth understanding and research on the frontier issues in the fields of international law, international criminal law and international human rights law, our team won the unanimous affirmation of the judges and successfully advanced to the quarter-finals. In the quarter-finals, our school team acted as the victim lawyer to confront prosecutors and defense lawyers from Bond University of Australia and the National University of the Philippines, and lost to Bond University in Australia.

The case of this competition is complicated and involves a wide range of international law knowledge, including customary international law, treaty interpretation, Nullum crimen sine lege, the principle of the matter is no longer a matter of concern, superior responsibility, accomplice theory, corporate criminal responsibility, human trafficking crime, etc.  The team members spent eight months seriously studying relevant academic works, reading a large number of international criminal courts, ICTY, ICTR, the Sierra Leone Criminal Court, the Lebanese Criminal Court and the European Court of Human Rights and other international court cases to train and improve research, English writing and Oral ability in English.

The reason that Wuhan University team could achieve excellent results in this competition lies in support of Wuhan University Law School and the Institute of International Law, the careful guidance of the teachers and the hard work of the players. At the same time, this experience has further enhanced the influence of our school in the international moot court competition. In addition, the experience of foreign competition has broadened the horizons of the participating players and enabled them to have a deeper understanding of international legal practice. This will help the law school and the Institute of International Law to cultivate international and applied law-enhancing legal talents in all aspects.