SWF sponsored the North American Regional Round of the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition

Saturday, March 25, 2023

Christopher Johnson attended and participated in the North American round of the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court competition, which was jointly hosted this year at Hogan Lovells (Friday) and Georgetown University Law Center (Saturday).

Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of teams for the in-person competition was down from 24 in 2019 to only 13 teams this year, but it was still enough teams to have a preliminary rounds, quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final round, with two brackets of teams and with each team arguing at least twice.

The first day was held on the thirteenth floor of Hogan Lovells, a DC law firm with excellent facilities - we took over basically the entire thirteenth floor, including multiple rooms for the competition, and side rooms for the judges and teams to prepare. CJohnson, as coach of the Georgetown team, saw his team compete against Air Command & Staff College, coached by Andrea Harrington, and against William & Mary law school.

The second day was held at Georgetown University, whose facilities were a bit more spartan, but where the finals could be held in the Supreme Court room. The Georgetown team made it to the semi-finals, where they argued again against Air Command & Staff college, but were not able to advance.

The finals were presided over by Ruth Pritchard-Kelly as president of the Court, with Alec Wessel from NASA Int’l Law Practice Group, and George John, an associate at Hogan Lovells, serving as associate justices of the court. The final round was between Air Command & Staff College and Regent Law School. Air Command & Staff College won the North American round, and will proceed to the world finals in Baku, Azerbaijan this fall, on the sidelines of the IAC.