OAU Law Students Beat Top South African University to Win Space Law Competition, will Represent Africa in Mexico

OAU Law Students Beat Top South African University to Win Space Law Competition, will Represent Africa in Mexico

A team of Law students from the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife, Osun state at the weekend defeated their counterparts from the University of Pretoria in South Africa at the final of the African round of the Manfred Lachs Space Law moot court competition to emerge champions of the 5th edition of the competition.

The team from IFELAW as the faculty of Law in OAU is fondly called, earlier faced off participants from top Ugandan school, the University of Makerere and the University of Pretoria at the preliminaries before emerging finalists at the contest held in Pretoria, South Africa’s capital city.

The OAU team comprises Timilehin Adekemi and Irene Ekord, both 400-level students of the Faculty of Law and Tolulope Dada, a 300-level student of the Law faculty. A senior lecturer at the faculty, Dr OA Orifowoomo supervised the team.

As African champions, the OAU team will now represent the African continent at the World Final of the Manfred Lachs Space Law moot in Mexico in September. The world final is an integral part of the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) to be hosted by Guadalajara, Mexico from 26th September to 30th September, 2016.

The Manfred Lachs Space Law moot court competition is a global advocacy contest for Law students that seeks to develop the capacity of students in the area of Space Law. It is organised annually by the International Institute of Space Law in conjunction with other affiliated bodies and features both oral and written arguments on hypothetical disputes around space exploration.

The 2014 edition of the African round of the competition was held in Nigeria’s federal capital, Abuja in partnership with the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) and was won by OAU while Babcock University and the Bayero University, Kano equally put in decent appearances.