UWI, Cave Hill, team wins regional competition

CCJ International Law Moot champions, The UWI, Cave Hill, and their advisors pose with CCJ President Justice Adrian Saunders at the close of the proceedings.

The Cave Hill campus of the University of the West Indies has won the coveted Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) International Law Moot. The faculty was previously victorious back in 2012.

The Cave Hill campus was also named Best Academic Institution.

The team of third-year students Deborah Bryan, Alala Moore, and Khyle Harrisingh outperformed seven other law schools and faculties from across the Caribbean. They were guided by advisor Dr Antonius Hippolyte, the interim dean of the faculty.

Now in its 15^th year, the CCJ International Law Moot is a flagship event for the court. It brings together future legal practitioners from throughout the region to present arguments before a panel of CCJ judges.

In this installment, the teams were required to argue a case based on a hypothetical dispute involving allegations that a CARICOM member state breached the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas (RTC) after it imposed a recruitment and procurement policy favouring its own citizens in its petroleum sector.

The judging panel described the Cave Hill team as “extremely well-prepared”.

CCJ Registrar and Chief Marshal, Gabrielle Figaro-Jones, praised the calibre of the participants.

She said, “After seeing the quality of arguments and the intellectual rigour displayed over these two days, the future of legal advocacy in our region is bright. The dreams of the region’s forefathers for regional unity and true and complete independence are in good hands”.

Aside from the Cave Hill campus, this year’s competitors included the Anton de Kom University of Suriname; Eugene Dupuch Law School, The Bahamas; Hugh Wooding Law School from Trinidad and Tobago; Norman Manley Law School from Jamaica; The University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica; The University of the West Indies, St Augustine; and the University of Guyana.

The 2025 Law Moot marks a significant milestone as the competition’s 15th anniversary and the final edition under the stewardship of Justice Andrew Burgess, who retires in April.

It is also the last moot for CCJ President Saunders, who retires in July 2025. (PR/BT)