7th Constitutional Moot Court 2019

To the already 7th time. Once on Saturday, 22.06.2019 the Constitutional Court of the Faculty of Law took place. In the role as complainant or The 36 student participants argued entitled to comment in front of the “Constitutional Court” staffed with members of the faculty and external practitioners. This year’s situation was the subject of the (constitutional) legal evaluation of the “Fridays for Future” movement.

The legal assessment of the “student strikes” in the context of the “Fridays for Future Movement” is controversial and raises interesting constitutional questions. In essence, it is about the balance between the freedom of assembly of the pupils on the one hand and the state education and education mission as well as compulsory schooling on the other.

The problems laid out in this year’s situation of the constitutional moot court of the Faculty of Law have taken up this current debate: The siblings A and G visit the high school in the city X in NRW and would like to participate in the protests of the fictional “Thursdays for a Turnaround” movement for changed climate policy. However, the requested exemption from teaching is rejected with reference to the supposedly priority compulsory schooling. After the students remain unexcused from the lessons, the headmistress S issues a written reference. Appeals are unsuccessful. The siblings eventually file constitutional complaints before the Constitutional Court for the state of NRW.

Since the issue of the facts on 2. May 2019, the participating students had the 2nd and 3rd Semesters in teams of 4 research both sides of the case and worked out the different points of view. The students were accompanied by Ms. Jana Lohmann, research assistant at the chair of Prof. Dr. Petersen. She supervised the popular course once again and organized accompanying offers for the teams, such as an introduction to scientific work or - together with the colleagues Isabel Lischewski and Hanna Tekle - also a professional rhetoric training.

In addition to the intensive content work, fun and team spirit were of course not to be neglected in the preparation phase. Thus, the teams were called upon to give themselves a creative and/or thematically appropriate name and to present themselves in a short campaign appearance. With poems, sketches, vocal and even acrobatics, the students proved that they can score not only with legal knowledge and rhetorical talent, but also with a lot of creativity. The team “Four for Justice” (Filippa Matzker, Erik Milas, Paul Stegemann, Merlit Vetter) received the greatest approval for a mixture of improvisational theatre and rap, thus winning the creative award for best team spirit.

On 22.06.2019, the trial simulations took place in front of the judges’ benches occupied with members of the faculty and judges of the OVG. On the competition day, the students either assumed the role of the students’ representatives of the litigation or the eligibility to express the opinion of the Ministry of Schools and Education of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. After passionate debates in the preliminary rounds, the four best points teams in the competition (“Die Profis”; “LLMM mastering Münster Moot Court”; “There is no greta team”; “UnCO 2 mpromising – you do, we tun”) entered the final rounds, which were held in an authentic setting at the Higher Administrative Court and the State Constitutional Court for the State of North Rhine-Westphalia The choice of the venue proved to be particularly fitting this year, as the constitutional law Moot Court was for the first time simulated the constitutional complaint – newly introduced on 1.1.2019 – before the Constitutional Court in Münster, after the simulation had played before the Federal Constitutional Court for several years.

After exciting final rounds, the following brilliant winners were selected at the award ceremony in the foyer:

1. Place: “The Pros” – Yasmin Drill, Johann Schmidt, Cristina Sotelo, Tessa Voswinkel

2. Place: “There is no greta Team” – Hannah Jürgens, Mira Lemke, Rebecca Mick, Clara Sievering

3. Place: “UnCO 2 mpromising – you do, we tun” - Kristin Hinxlage, Jasmin Lübke, Katharina Lüß, Ester Struckmeier

 

In the category “Best Speaker” the following students were able to convince the judges:

1. Place: Ester Struckmeier

2. Place: Clara Sievering

3. Place: Raphael Viebeg

 

All award winners were pleased to receive attractive prizes, which were provided with the kind support of the Freundeskreis Rechtswissenschaft. Sponsored by the Förderverein Fachschaft Jura, a champagne reception took place in the foyer of the OVG, where the students still had the opportunity to talk to the judges, organizers and other teams in a relaxed atmosphere and to end the eventful day together.