South East Europe Rounds of the Monroe E. Price International Media Law Moot Court Competition
In the period of 14-16 December 2012, University of Belgrade Faculty of Law had the honor of organizing the regional moot court competition – South East Europe Rounds of the Monroe E. Price International Media Law Moot Court Competition in cooperation with the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy (PCMLP)at the University of Oxford’s Centre for Socio-Legal Studies.
The SEE Rounds gathered more than 70 participants, students and judges, from eight countries of the region – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. The regional rounds served as a qualification tournament for the finals in Oxford in April 2013. Teams of seven universities competed: University of Belgrade, University of Nis, University of Sarajevo, University of Skopje, University of Sofia (UNWE), University of Zagreb and University of Zenica. The top three teams advancing to the International Rounds in Oxford are University of Zagreb, University of Nis and University of Sarajevo. The team of the University of Belgrade, despite victory over University of Zagreb, the overall winner, in the qualification rounds, as well as prizes for best memorials – runner-up and best oralist – runner-up (Igor Radovanovic), did not qualify for the finals in Oxford.
The judges at the competition were media law experts – media lawyers, scholars, researchers and regulators, both from Serbia and the SEE region. Quality of judges can be best displayed by the bench in the final round – two judges of the European Court of Human Rights, Professor Dragoljub Popović, judge from Serbia and Margarita Tzatza Nikolovska, former Macedonian judge of ECHR, now working as the international judge of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as renowned media lawyers from Croatia, Vesna Alaburić, Bulgaria, Alexander Kachamov and Serbia, Slobodan Kremenjak.
Organization of the SEE Rounds in Belgrade and travel and stay of top three ranked teams in Oxford was financially supported by the Internews Network, Serbian Ministry of Culture and Information, Delegation of the EU to the Republic of Serbia and OSCE Mission in Serbia.
The members of the Organizing Board of the Belgrade tournament were: Professor Monroe Price, the founder of the Moot (president), Prof. Sima Avramović, Dean of the Belgrade Law Faculty, Dr. Nicole Stremlau, coordinator of the PCMLP and a researcher at the University of Oxford’s Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, and assistant professors of the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law – Dr. Miloš Živković and Dr. Milena Đorđević, whereas a person who has invested most time and energy in planning and organizing the event is the executive secretary of the Board – Vuk Cucić, lecturer at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law and a former coach of the Belgrade team which won the first place at the Monroe E. Price International Media Law Moot in 2011.
