Revisiting the 2009 Jessup Competition...

The 2009 Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Competition was a lot of fun. The competition also highlights the incredible advocacy talents that are out there in the world. The future of international law looks very sound to me.

The Final Round was between the Universidad de los Andes, Colombia vs. University College London, United Kingdom. The case was, The Case Concerning "Operation Provide Shelter". The competition is run by the International Law Students Association. The competition continues to grow every year and this means that the competition gets tougher every year.

I am proud of the students that I worked with (coached) in this competition.

Here is a short clip of the Final Round.

Jessup 2009

The UPH team has performed admirably and reached the final rounds of the Jessup competition. Unfortunately, we were defeated by a team from Colombia.

The Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Competition is the most prestigious of all law moot competitions and it is therefore quite an achievement to reach the final rounds. It would have been nice to have gone a little further still. However, I am proud of the team's achievement as no one expected them to do this well.

They will be better for the experience and will one day be exceptional lawyers and advocates.

Colombia & Cocaine

Good news for some and bad news for others as Colombia's National Police Chief, Oscar Naranjo, tells an anti-drug summit that Colombia's share of world production has fallen form 90% in 2002 to around 54% today.

That is a significant drop for sure and it must be hurting the drug cartels based in Colombia. Yet, my guesstimation would be that what is lost on the merry-go-round is made up on the swing. Someone else is more than likely picking up Colombia's slack.

What the reduction does say though is that the police in Colombia are having success in their crop eradication efforts, the removal of drug laboratories, and the prosecution of drug bosses. This has seen more than a million hectares of drug crops destroyed. In another success story more than 74 tonnes of cocaine has been seized in the first three months of 2008.

I still wonder about legalization and take the black market out of the trade. Another debate for another post, I suppose!

Obama vs. Clinton - Free Trade

Recent weeks have seen a number of developments on this front and all of them highlight the hypocrisy and double-speak of politicians...It is sad that we get caught up in the need for change and do not give enough critical thought to these things. I am not an American so do not get to vote. But I think that even though this is the case, the outcome of the US election will impact on the broader world in general and as such we as citizens of the world should care a little more!

On topic...Some time ago an Obama advisor and strategist, Austan Goolsbee, told some Canadian officials not to be too concerned with the Obama rhetoric on NAFTA because he did not really mean it. However, Obama did not "get rid of" Goolsbee in spite of saying that he would have removed Mark Penn if he had been on his staff. Nah, the rationale here is that Goolsbee was never a paid staffer and as such could not be removed. It's all semantics to me! If that is the logic then why bother responding to the anti-American outbursts of your former preacher because he is no longer your preacher and no longer part of the campaign in any form...as I said it is all semantics to me!

Yet, when it was revealed that Clinton's chief economic strategist, Mark Penn, is lobbying on behalf of the Colombian government with respect to a free trade deal he was forced to step down and leave the campaign staff. This had to happen because Clinton has been railing against the deal with Colombia.

The Democrats need to work this one out though because free trade is not necessarily a bad deal overall. There is obviously some pain felt for some but overall NAFTA by all accounts has delivered more benefits overall than it has been detrimental (I would need to read more before entering into a debate on the matter).

If I was an American and having to vote this coming November, I would be questioning just how much change Obama is willing to deliver or perhaps more importantly how much change can he deliver? The rhetoric is one thing the delivery is another. The proof of the pudding is in the eating and not the baking, or actions speak louder than words, or seeing is believing!

But ultimately one reaps what they sow!