6th Constitutional Moot Court 2018

Students of the faculty simulate trial before the Federal Constitutional Court

“The Federal Constitutional Court” – with this exclamation of the volunteer bailiffs, the preliminary rounds of the Constitutional Moot Court 2018 were opened on Saturday, 30.06.2018 in the prepared “Sessions” at the Bispinghof.

The 36 participants of the Moot Court (all students of the 2nd and 3. Semesters in one of the Faculty’s legal studies) had been preparing for their pleas for 8 weeks and were now looking forward to the moving “senate” (professors and academic staff of the Faculty of Law, a lawyer and judges of the administrative jurisdiction).

The topic of the following negotiation simulation was the new model of broadcast financing in Germany. Since the introduction of the device-independent broadcasting contribution, its constitutionality has been controversially discussed. Several constitutional complaints are currently pending, in which, among other things, the contribution model, the unequal treatment of single-person households compared to multi-person households and the unequal treatment of holders of several residences are complained about. These debates were taken up by this year's case.

Since the issue of the facts on 2. In May 2018, the student teams had dealt intensively with the legal problem. Parallel to their preparation, the oral proceedings also took place in May 2018 before the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe and the judgment was given for the 18th. July announced. This year’s VMC case was thus more current than ever before and the students were able to follow all developments of “their” case live.

The participants were also prepared for their pleas with professional rhetoric training, which could be offered at the beginning of June in cooperation with the Debattierclub Münster.

On the day of the competition, each of the participating teams of 4 initially competed twice in the preliminary rounds, once as party representatives of the complaining citizens (complainants), once as party representatives of the state governments (execution-eligible). So all teams had the opportunity to present the facts from both sides and to present all pro and contra arguments - a delightful feature of the "Moot Court" format.

The four best teams (“Guardians of the Constitution”, “Ipsa Iustitiae”, “Söhne Karlsruhes – Relative, Male, Charmant” and “Four against Voßkuhle”) moved into the final rounds, which were held in the afternoon in the building of the Upper Administrative Court of Münster and State Constitutional Court for the State of North Rhine-Westphalia at Aegidikirchplatz. In an authentic atmosphere of a constitutional court, all the arguments and rhetorical refinements were given here once again.

The lucky winners were the competition:
Laura Goller, Inga Niedersberg, Niklas Steinke, Lena Westphal (1. Place);
Pia Langkämper, Christian Dominik Popp, Julius Kordt, Jakob König (2. Place);
Erik Witta, Moritz Kiefer, Leonhard Schnurbusch, Felix Baßmann (3. place).

Laura Goller was named best speaker, followed by Niklas Steinke (2. Place) and Christian Dominik Popp. With their team name “Lawyers with Her(t)z” based on this year’s theme, Geesa Forthövel, Lukas Wetter and Rebecca Zachel won the creative prize for the best team spirit.

Organizer Jana Lohmann congratulated the students and presented the winners with non-fiction prizes, which were provided with the support of the circle of friends law. All supporters and helpers were thanked for the all-round successful competition.

Ms. Lohmann encouraged the students to understand the award ceremony not only as a festive conclusion of their participation in the VMC 2018, but also as a starting signal for a further commitment in the field of public law and “mooting”. Alumni of the Moot Court have already founded various university groups. The faculty is also represented every year at international Moot Court competitions with its own team, so that there are excellent opportunities to build on participation in the VMC 2018!