Two Elon University students and a 2009 alum won awards last week for their performance in a moot court competition at the 3rd annual International Human Rights Law Summer Study in Vilnius, Lithuania, a program co-sponsored by the university’s Center for Public Affairs.
Chris Champney ’09 was a member of the team awarded “Best Applicant Team” honors while Amanda Morrissey ’10 was a member of the “Best Respondent Team.” Melanie Woodward ‘10 was awarded a “Best Oralist” designation.
Students from several countries (United States, Canada, Lithuania, Belarus, France and Italy) came together to study some of the most difficult and legally complex issues facing societies today, said Betty Morgan, an associate professor of political science at Elon and director of the Center for Public Affairs. She said the network of international students, faculty, practitioners, government officials and others who contribute to the instruction combine to provide a unique and incredibly rich context in which to study.
Elon student Kendall Ford joined Morrissey, Woodward and Champney in Lithuania. The program was co-sponsored by the Elon Center for Public Affairs and Mykolo Romerio University, European Humanities University (the Belarussian University in Exile), Human Rights Monitoring Institute of Lithuania, and Bring Human Rights Home, a U.S.-based non-profit organization promoting educational opportunities for students of human rights issues.
The program is supported by the U.S. Embassy and operates under the auspices of the President of the Lithuanian Parliament.
Students and faculty represented institutions such as the University of North Dakota School of Law, Elon University, Universite de Rouen in France, Vilnius University and The Human Rights Monitoring Institute.
“The combination of experience, contemporary practice and academic expertise set against the backdrop of the region’s history of human rights challenges offers unique insights and helps students develop a sophisticated, multi-dimensional understanding of the issues facing contemporary human rights advocates,” Morgan said.
The program culminated in a moot court competition, which allowed students to apply the knowledge acquired during the program to a hypothetical case representing challenging circumstances in contemporary international and human rights law.