Date: 18-19 February 2023
Venue: Supreme Court of Azerbaijan Republic
We witnessed history in the making as three teams competed in the 2023 Azerbaijani National Rounds of prestigious Philip C. Jessup International Moot Court Competition! Academy of State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan, Baku State University, and the newest contender in our country, ADA University, went head-to-head for national championship. In a fiercely competitive but amicable contest, team from ADA University emerged as winners and secured their spot in the international rounds! ADA University achieved best result of recent years as a representative of Azerbaijan in the international rounds (see below).
We can surely say that skills of all three teams were evenly matched and margin of victory was very small. But it is a contest and one should win at the end of the day. Let’s look closer to the participating teams.
Academy of State Customs Committee
Members of the ASCCA team were:
Anar Rzayev
Mahmud Bayramov
Murad Mammadli
Rail Yaqubov
Subhan Garayev
The team had managed to achieve best performance of their institution in Philip C. Jessup International Moot Court Competition since the first participation in 2019! As each of the three Azerbaijani teams from ASCCA, ADA and BSU had one win and one loss in preliminary rounds, advancing teams could only be determined based on raw points as per the rules. BSU team had 1497, ADA had 1468, ASCCA had 1448 raw points (as the result, BSU and ADA teams were the finalists). For the comparison, ASCCA team’s best raw point result up to this year was 1392 in 2019.
Gunel Mammadzade, Imamverdi Novruzlu and Nihal Nuri were advisers of the ASCCA team. Gunel Mammadzada and Imamverdi Novruzlu had been respective members of 2019 and 2020 ASCCA Jessup teams.
Baku State University
Members of the BSU team were:
Javid Rahimli
Mehri Guliyeva
Nijat Ismayilzada
Tural Hasanov
Zeynab Askerli
The BSU team placed first in overall memorial ranking of national rounds with 494 points. ASCCA and ADA teams tied for the second place with 460 points (ADAU points reflect 15 points late submission penalty). As all three teams got one win and one lose in oral rounds, advancing teams were determined based on raw points as per the rules (BSU 1497, ADAU 1468, ASCCA 1448). BSU and ADA advanced to final round based on raw points ranking.
Membes of previous BSU Jessup teams Elnara Yusibova (2019-20) and Elvin Karimli (2020), as well as Orkhan Bashirli were advisers of the BSU team.
ADA University
Team members of the ADA team were:
Afsan Kazimov
Elgun Ganizada
Khayyam Sultanli
Seljan Mammadli
Zeynab Guluzada
The ADA team won the Championship Round with judges’ 2-1 majority vote. They’ll represent Azerbaijan in international rounds of the 2023 Jessup. The international rounds will be held in Washington DC, USA, during 8-15 April.
Nihad Huseynov and Nijat Rasulzada were advisers of the ADA team.
Post International Rounds edit: The ADA team has also achieved the best results of recent years in the international rounds as representative of Azerbaijan!
This achievement was made with one win from total four rounds and a total of 2872 raw points. It was Azerbaijan’s first win in the international rounds since 2016, besting the 2018 mark of 2,665. It should be noted that during 2007-2015 and in 2022, our country was not represented, international rounds were cancelled in 2020, and in 2021, it took place in an unconventional format, online and among 550 teams.
Among 135 teams according to the final ranking, the representative of Azerbaijan was ranked 90th.
Zeynab Guluzadeh, as per individual scores, took the 88th place in the global oralists ranking with an average of 86.8 points. If we take the available historical records, this is the highest since 2000, when we started participating in the competition. Afsan Kazimov and Seljan Mammadli from the team also placed among the top 200 oralists (167th with 83.2 points and 190th with 82.6 points, respectively).
This result is also the success of other Azerbaijani teams who improved their skillset with the national selection preparation, and others that has a role in their preparation. This achievement of the Azerbaijani team is a clear evidence of how consistent participation, competitive selection and the involvement of different generations in the process is valuable. However, it is very important that we focus not only on individual results or rankings, but on encouraging the participation of law schools in international competitions and creating an environment that fosters continuous learning, development and collaboration. We believe that with this approach, the result of the current year will be a catalyst for greater success.
Judges
Following judges evaluated the teams during oral rounds:
Gunel Israfilova
Jafar Babayev
Kanan Madatli
Murad Alizada
Mahammad Safarli
Nurlan Mustafayev
Rodrigo Labardini
Samira Safarova
Shahla Ibrahimova
We are also pleased to note that most of the judges have participated in this competition in the past, and have returned as judges to share their experience with the next generation of legal professionals. This speaks to the enduring value and impact of this competition, as well as the dedication and passion of the legal community to support the development of young talents.
We hope and believe that current participants will continue to be part of Jessup Azerbaijan community as judges or coaches in the future as well.
Administrators
Mehran Amirli and Turan Abbasov were National Administrators this year. Turan represented Academy of State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan in 2019 Jessup. Mehran was Baku State University team member in 2017 Jessup.
