International Court of Justice (ICJ)

Preliminary Information for the BMICJ 2010

Dear MUN Directors,
As the most significant judicial organ of the United Nations, the International Court of Justice bears a large responsibility. It issues verdicts to resolve legal disputes submitted to it by states and bases its decisions on customary international law. In addition, various international organs and agencies call upon the ICJ for guidance.

Eight years ago, the Berlin Model International Court of Justice (BMICJ) was founded. Since then, the BMICJ has been growing and learning. To further diversify and expand our program, we would like to encourage the participation of more students from different schools and countries. The BMICJ is the most intense and challenging forum at the BERMUN Conference. It is a crash course in international law, and all students considering pursuing a legal career would greatly benefit from the ICJ experience.

Participants will become familiar with the functions of international law and put their knowledge to use during a mock trial. Students who aren’t planning on pursuing a career in law but still want to gain insight into the process of analyzing a court case are also welcome. All members of the BMICJ will, regardless of their future career choices, further their analytical and debating skills by actively participating in our program.

To make the endeavour a success year after year, dedication before and during the conference is essential: The more effort and time participants are willing to invest, the more rewarding the experience will be for the whole group. Past conferences have proven that the work is worth it; students leave the ICJ feeling that they have acquired a confident understanding of legal processes during their stay in Berlin.

The BMICJ 2010 will be composed of 10 to 15 independent judges, two presidents who also act as judges, a registrar, and two advocate teams. A selected fictional case based on past international disputes will be presented to the judges by the advocates. Guest students will act as witnesses to support the claims of each advocate team. The presidents will guide the advocates prior to their presentations of evidence to give them a better understanding of their key arguments. Judges will witness a mock trial and evaluate the relative weight of each peace of evidence; they will also be permitted to ask questions of advocates and witnesses.

After the advocates formally introduce all evidence and present all witnesses, the judges will commence deliberation. In the meantime, the advocates will be preparing for a question and answer session with the judges, which will be held after the first deliberation period is over. The presidents will guide deliberation and help judges evaluate legal documents properly, ensuring the quality of the final verdict.

Please encourage your students to take advantage of this unique opportunity and submit any applications to us by their respective due-dates. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us (email: bermunicj@gmail.com; phone: +49 30 3211348).

Sincerely,
Katharina Windemuth, President of the BMICJ
Chrissa Tsatsaronis, Registrar of the BMICJ
Jakob Slama, President of the BMICJ