RI Students Win Australian Law Competition

Indonesia has demonstrated to the international community it has the potential to produce high-caliber lawyers with its students defeating students from top universities in Asia and Australia to win an international law competition in Australia recently.

To win the 2007 International Maritime Law Arbitration Moot, students from the School of Law at the University of Indonesia defeated students from 17 universities in Malaysia, India, Hong Kong, China and Australia.

The competition was held between June 22 and June 26 in Melbourne, Australia.

"Aside from winning the competition, we also took home second prize for best written individual argument," the dean of the University of Indonesia's School of Law, Hikmahanto Juwana, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Beside students from the University of Indonesia, the country was also represented in the competition by students from Bandung's University of Padjajaran.

Hikmahanto said the University of Indonesia team was made up of Ivan Nikolas Tambunan, Rivana Mezaya, Titis Lintang Andari, Ken Prasadtyo and Adithya Lesmana. Their head coaches were Giffy Pardede and Hanna Azkiya.

In the competition, a team of judges including Australian Federal Court judge James Allsop, London-based arbiter David Martin-Clark and international legal consultant Ron Salter established international maritime law dispute cases.

The students presented their arguments in oral and written form as though they were battling out real disputes at the International Court of Justice. The judges were able to interrupt students during the presentation of their arguments.

During the qualifying stage, the University of Indonesia defeated teams from Perth's Murdoch University, Hong Kong University, Malaysia's International Islamic University of Malaya and the National Law University of Jodhpur in India.

In the quarterfinal, Indonesia's team defeated the Mara University of Technology from Malaysia and in the semifinal defeated another team from Murdoch University.

In the grand final, which was held at the Australian Federal Court in Melbourne, the Indonesian team were victorious over competition host Victoria University.

This victory follows Hanna Azkiya's success in winning the title for best orator at the Phillip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition in Washington DC in March.

To win the award, Hanna defeated 290 fellow students from 95 universities worldwide, including students from the United States, England, Australia, Singapore, China and Malaysia.

In 2006, the university also won the region's prestigious Asia Cup law competition in Japan.

Many critics claim Indonesia lacks qualified lawyers to defend its interests in international disputes, pointing to the loss of the Sipadan and Ligitan islands to Malaysia in the International Court of Justice in 2002 as an example.

But this recent series of victories appears to indicate that Indonesia has the potential to win future international disputes. Indonesia's Navy has identified over a dozen islands along the country's border that could be claimed by other countries.

"These victories prove that the quality of Indonesian law students, especially those from the University of Indonesia, is at the same level or higher than other countries. We hope these students will become the backbone of Indonesia's legal system in the years to come," Hikmahanto said. (The Jakarta Post)