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law
Law students representing American University of Iraq, Sulaimani (AUIS) won first place for the fourth year at the Iraq national rounds of the Philip C. Jessup International Moot Court competition on February 15, 2023.
Students Zhya Burhan Faraj, Lana Azad Rasul, Kareem Saman Khalid, Didar Nawzad Abdalrahman, and Dima Mustafa Yahya traveled with team coach, Assistant Professor and AUIS Law Program Director Dr. Ali Ahmed Rahman to the Kurdistan region’s capital Erbil to compete against teams from the University of Duhok, University of Sulaimani, and host institution, University of Salahaddin.
The teams competed against each other across three rounds, with AUIS named the winning team each time and earning special recognition for written memorials and oral presentations.
This year marked AUIS’s fourth win at the Iraq National Jessup Championship. AUIS student teams won the national rounds in 2018 and 2019, representing the nation at the international rounds in Washington, DC, attended by more than one hundred teams from around the world. The AUIS team was again selected to represent Iraq in 2020, however, the international competition was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Named after American international lawyer and diplomat Philip C. Jessup and organized by the International Law Students Association, the Jessup Moot Court is a simulation of law practice before the International Court of Justice.
Each year, university students compete at national qualifying rounds to represent their country at the international competition in Washington, D.C., where teams argue hypothetical legal cases on behalf of fictitious countries.
American University of Iraq, Sulaimani (AUIS) will offer a new Bachelor’s degree in law after receiving approval from the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, University President Bruce Walker Ferguson announced today.
The new AUIS Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Law degree will be awarded to students completing a rigorous five-year course of study that includes advanced language study in Arabic and English together with extensive practical experience from internships.
Building on the popular law minor at AUIS, the new major will offer university-level law courses in both English and Arabic, as well as a broad array of courses in the natural and social sciences that are part of the University’s renowned Core Curriculum. The legal studies program at AUIS has been in development in collaboration with Stanford Law School, the number two law degree program in the United States. Last spring, students from AUIS represented Iraq in the final round of the international Jessup Moot Court competition, held in Washington, D.C.
“We thank the Ministry for approving this innovative new academic program, and look forward to continuing our longstanding collaboration with Stanford,” President Ferguson stated. “The new major is designed to provide our graduates with excellent employment opportunities in Iraq and its Kurdistan region, particularly with employers who require their lawyers to have a solid understanding of international law as well as national and regional law.” Employers value the English language proficiency and work ethic of AUIS graduates, resulting in a high percentage (81%) of AUIS graduates who are in graduate school or employed, predominantly in the private sector.
Professor Erik G. Jensen, Director of the Rule of Law Program at Stanford Law School and faculty member of Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL), welcomed the news of the law major. “We’re delighted,” he said. “We’ve been working in partnership [with AUIS] for the last six or seven years, first offering a couple of classes, then offering a minor in law, and now a major in law.”
Jensen added that his students at Stanford Law School have already begun writing working papers to support the curriculum design of the new B.A. at AUIS.
Applications for the new law degree are now being accepted. Prospective students may contact the AUIS admissions department at
[email protected].
