CONFERENCE
The University of Latvia was represented by third-year undergraduate students of the Law programme – Evija Velvele, Alise Paškovska and Letīcija Mase. The team was coached by Kristaps Tamužs, Head of the Legal Department of the Constitutional Court of Latvia, and Dr. iur. Lolita Buka, Lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Latvia.
This year’s case mainly addressed issues related to interception of digital communications, protection of journalists’ sources, blocking access to online investigative journalism content, and sanctions for statements made on social media. Teams were required to analyse how to balance the right to privacy and freedom of expression with considerations of national security and public order.
In preparation for the oral rounds, the team participated in several training sessions where numerous guest judges helped them prepare by posing challenging questions. The team would like to express sincere gratitude to Ieva Andersone, Edmunds Broks, Kanstantsin Dzehtsiarou, Domenico Grazioso, Emīls Jonins, Natālija Knipše, Artūrs Kučs, Arina Melse, Kristiāna Pētersone, Dainis Pudelis, Agneta Rumpa, Anete Suharževska and Eva Vīksna for their time and valuable advice.
In Paris, the University of Latvia team competed against teams from Ukraine, Ireland and Slovenia. The competition was extremely strong and, unlike many other international moot courts, outcomes often depended on how effectively teams could present highly complex legal issues in a clear and accessible manner to the judges.
Although the team did not qualify for the final rounds of the competition, which will take place in Oxford in April, they performed commendably. The Kyiv-Mohyla Academy team won the European regional rounds with an outstanding performance, defeating the University of Oxford team in the final.
The team positively evaluates its performance and expresses sincere gratitude to the Faculty of Law of the University of Latvia for the opportunity to participate in this competition. Special thanks are extended to the team’s coaches Kristaps Tamužs and Lolita Buka for their dedication and hard work in preparing the team.
Team coach Kristaps Tamužs commented:
"I would like to thank the University of Latvia and especially Lolita Buka and Artūrs Kučs for inviting me to try my hand at coaching the team. I believe the greatest satisfaction for both myself and the team members lies in the progress achieved during the training process. In September we started with the basics, but by January the team members were developing arguments at a very high level, confidently navigating between various sources of law, including case law from at least five different international and national courts. I sincerely hope that the team members will continue participating in moot court competitions and that the experience gained in this competition will be useful in the future."
