Universidad Pompeu Fabra wins Spanish rounds of Jessup 2025

The team of students from Universidad Pompeu Fabra has won the Spanish rounds of the 2025 Philip C. Jessup International Law Court Competition, after beating the team from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in the final round. For the 15th year, we have hosted the national rounds of this prestigious competition—the world leader in moot courts—held at our Madrid office from February 18 to 20.

Throughout three intensive days, forty-four students from nine Spanish universities (ESADE, IE, IBEI, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Universidad de Deusto, Universidad de Lleida, Universidad Pompeu Fabra and Universidad de Salamanca), organized into nine teams and accompanied by twenty-one coaches, put into practice the aspects that will be most important in their careers as lawyers: oral skills, teamwork and exhaustive legal research.

This year, the Spanish rounds of the competition focused on “The case concerning the Naegea sea.” This case enabled the students to address matters such as the rights and obligations of other members of the international community when two individuals claim to be the legitimate president of a state, and the legal consequences of the recession of the coastline for the maritime zones of the coastal states.

The panel—formed by some of our lawyers, external professionals in international law, academics and university lecturers, former participants and officials of international bodies—following relevant deliberations, decided that the team from Universidad Pompeu Fabra, made up of Ela Arenas, Mariona Blanch, Tristán Dorda, Conor Douglas and Bernat Valero, deserved to win this edition and represent Spain in the international final rounds. This recognition is the culmination of the work carried out with their coaches Melissa Bell, Carlo Carvajal and Diego Ernesto Iván Sánchez.

Ana Isabel Fernández Alonso, associate from Hausfeld and panel member, spoke about this year’s competition: “We saw a high level in this edition and great preparation by the students. It was very interesting for the panel to listen to their arguments and witness the preparation they put into it.”

Ela Arenas, representative of the winning team, emphasized: “Participating in the Spanish rounds was very stimulating and surpassed our expectations. We did not think it would be such an enriching experience. The questions from the judges, some of them from the USA, gave us all a challenge.”

The Philip C. Jessup International Law Court Competition, held for the first time in 1960, is an international competition for law students that attracts participants from over 700 law schools in over 100 countries. The winning teams from each country will compete for first place in the international rounds, taking place from March 29 to April 5 in Washington D.C.