AUCA students turned into prosecutors and defenders in the legendary courtroom where the Nuremberg trials were held

September 7, 2018

Law Division 2^nd year students Bakai Abdykul uulu and Aigerim Egemberdieva, have participated in Nuremberg International Criminal Law Moot Court 2018 which took place at Justice Palace’s courtroom 600 from July 25 to July 29, where Nuremberg tribunal was established. 

Nuremberg Moot Court is a simulation of an international criminal court where students are offered a fictitious case, on the basis of which they appear in court both on the side of the prosecution and on the side of defense. Such game processes are judged by judges and leading experts in this field.

«It was a great experience participating in Nuremberg Moot Court. Nuremberg Moot Court is a simulation of International Criminal Court, where students argue a fictitious case with leading high professionals in the field of International Criminal Law as judges. In our case we had judges who were a prosecutor of International Criminal Tribunal of Former Yugoslavia, workers from International Criminal Court and High Regional Courts of Germany. During the preparations we gained knowledge on substantial and procedural part of International Criminal Law. We met students from different universities who are also interested in International Criminal Law and planning career in this field of law.

Speaking of the case itself, this case of the "Prosecutor v. Mr. Balboa" was considered before the International Criminal Court (ICC). The main issue before Pre-trial Chamber was whether there are reasonable grounds for believing that Mr. Balboa is criminally liable for Genocide through forced labor, enslavement as Crimes against humanity and cyber-attack on hospital as War crime.

According to the facts of the case, the defendant, Mr. Balboa was born in 1975 in the Republic of Neckar (Neckar). Mr. Balboa was Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Democratic Neckar Party. He was also the sole owner, Chairman of the Board and CEO of “High-Tek-Mines” LLC. Nekkar's population of four million people included 200,000 people from various ethnic minorities.

Starting in April 2016 the three non-governmental organization (HRO, ILO and WHO) reported on the large-scale human rights violations, inhumane conditions for workers, increased mortality rates in the mining regions of Neckar.

Ten detainee workers escaped from the mines and fled to the Mosel Federation. These escapee workers claimed to be detained under the Temporary Law and forced to work in the mines. Two of the escapee workers also stated that they had over-heard about the nationalism and mono-ethnicity plan in Neckar.

Mr. Balboa ordered his team from “High-Tek” IT Corporation to hack into the computers at the hospital, where the ten escapee workers were being treated, and to shut down all medical equipment at the hospital and turn off its electricity supply. As a result of this cyber-attack, 45 patients in the hospital, including the ten workers, died.

In the first round, we have argued on behalf of defense against the team from Yerevan State University in Armenia. In the second round we have argued on behalf of the prosecutor against the team from the National University of Kyiv-Mohila Academy in Ukraine. On this round, Bakai Abdykul uulu won in the nomination "second best speaker".

Getting a feedback from judges and answering their questions during hearings was a huge experience for us. We practiced knowledge that we got during the International Criminal Law class in AUCA. We are proud to represent AUCA in this Moot Court. We had an equal competition with other teams, one of our team member was nominated as the second best speaker during the second round. We are very thankful to AUCA Law department and SILC for financial support of our participation in Nuremberg Moot Court. We are planning to use this experience in our developing AUCA Moot Court club. It was our first International Moot Court and not the least.”

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