King Hall hosts 12th Annual Asylum & Refugee Law National Moot Court Competition

The winners and judges, from left: Daniel Palacios, Prakriti Luthra, Judge Danette Brown, Dean Kevin Johnson, General Counsel for the State Bar of California Vanessa Holton, Maddi Durbin and Freya Jamison.

This past weekend, the UC Davis Moot Court Board held the 12th Annual Asylum and Refugee Law National Moot Court Competition. Eighteen teams from law schools across the country came to Davis to participate in the competition.

The Asylum & Refugee Law National Moot Court Competition is the only competition in the nation devoted exclusively to the topic of asylum and refugee law. It is also 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 write a brief as either respondent or petitioner on an issue related to asylum and refugee law. Over the weekend, students participated in oral arguments before local attorneys and judges who specialize in immigration law and/or appellate advocacy.

Ismah Ahmad ’19, Asylum Chair

The problem involved a complex asylum case involving a woman from the fictitious country of Bazag  , a nation composed of two small islands with a severe water shortage, who fled the country after feeling threatened with sexual harassment and violence.

The preliminary rounds were on Saturday and the semi-finals and finals on Sunday. I had the honor of judging the final round, along with Vanessa L. Holton, the California State Bar’s general counsel, and Administrative Law Judge Dee Brown.

The finalists were excellent advocates.  Although we did not know until the completion of the round, the two teams -- friends and first year students -- were both from Columbia Law School.  Pakritii Luthra and Daniel Palacios represented Petitioner Leila Marcos; Madeleine Durbin and Freya Jameson represented the U.S. government. The justices had a challenging time picking a winner but found that the U.S. government prevailed by a razor-thin margin.

The Moot Court Board was led this year by Gymmel Carmona '19 and Ismah Ahmad ’19, who was the Asylum Chair. They deserve credit for a great event. Students worked long and hard drafting the problem, enlisting judges, and organizing the event from beginning to end. Congratulations!