Asylum & Refugee Law National Moot Court Competition draws outstanding student teams

This weekend, the UC Davis Moot Court Honors Board held the UC Davis Asylum & Refugee Law National Moot Court Competition.  It is the only competition in the nation devoted exclusively to the topic of asylum and refugee law and the only immigration law moot court competition on the West Coast. 

The competition provides law students from across the country the opportunity to participate in a hypothetical appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Competitors wrote a brief as either respondent or petitioner on an issue related to asylum and refugee law. Oral arguments were held virtually on March 6 and 7.

I had the opportunity to judge two preliminary rounds on Saturday and the final round on Sunday (with "Justices" Sean McCoy and Zach Malinski '19).  The students prepared an excellent problem involving the well-founded fear of persecution standard for an asylum case. It concerned an applicant who fled his homeland because of fear of persecution based on his ethnicity.  The problem also involved a challenging Due Process issue.

The advocates were astoundingly good. As it turned out (the judges did not know the schools that the students were from until the finals were completed), the two teams of finalists came from Columbia School of Law in New York City!

Congratulations to all the participants, the Moot Court Board, and the volunteer judges!