The Harvard Law School team won the North American round of the European Law Students Association (ELSA) Moot Court Competition on World Trade Organization (WTO) Law, which was held at American University in Washington, DC from March 5-8.  As a result of their victory, the team qualified for the global final round, which will be held at the WTO Secretariat in Geneva from May 13-15. In the course of the tournament, Harvard defeated teams from Georgetown University, Queen’s College Ontario, Ohio State University, and Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia.  In addition to the team winning the North American Final, team Captain Daniel Holman (’14) received Best Oralist for the Preliminary Round and team member Jason Nichol (’15) received Best Oralist for the North American Semifinal Round.  Other members are Veronica Sauer (’14) and Kamola Kobildjanova (’15), and the team is coached by JD students Colette van der Ven (’15) and Derrick Sutter (’15).  While students are only allowed to compete once in the competition, this is the fourth consecutive year the Harvard team has won the North American round.

The ELSA WTO Moot Court is the premier global international trade law moot competition.  Teams represent fictitious states in a dispute over the impact of national laws on trade commitments.  This year’s case concerned a controversy over public and private management of water and sewage utilities under the GATS treaty on trade in services.