Law students of the Obafemi Awolowo
University (OAU) in Ile-Ife, Osun
State, did Nigeria proud when they
beat their counterparts from the
University of Pretoria to win the
Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot
Competition, a regional contest held
at the Pretoria High Court in South
Africa. CALEB ADEBAYO (Graduating
law student) reports.
•Varsity wins regional Law contest
You could cut through the tension in the
Palace of Justice of the Pretoria High Court
in South Africa that day with a knife. The
courtroom was filled with people who
came to watch legal fireworks by the
opposing counsel. The outcome of the
case was not to jail anyone; it was all part
of the thrills and frills at the grand finale of
the regional Manfred Lachs Space Law
Moot Contest held in Pretoria.
Students of the Obafemi Awolowo
University (OAU) in Ile-Ife, Osun State,
thrilled members of the audience with
their knowledge of the law when they met
their counterparts from the University of
Pretoria at the final of the competition.
OAU students won.
•The moot session
The Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot
Competition is a yearly contest where law
students worldwide show their litigation
proficiency in proceedings based on
international space law disputes. The
contest imitates proceedings at the
International Court of Justice.
This year’s edition was hosted by the
South African Council for Space Affairs
(SACSA), a space science regulatory body
affiliated to South Africa’s Department of
Trade and Industry, in collaboration with
the Aerospace Industry Support Initiative.
The argument centred on dispute between
two hypothetical countries – SPIDR and
URA. It was to present issues relating to
the response to a threat posed by the risk
of collision of the earth with Near Earth
Objects (NEOs). Counsel from each school
addressed the utilisation of natural
resources and liability for damages
occasioned by the NEOs.
Six African universities, including OAU,
University of Pretoria, Niger Delta
University also from Nigeria, Makerere
University in Uganda, University of Juba in
South Sudan, and Mount Kenya University,
participated in the competition.
The OAU counsel comprised John Odey,
Peace Onashile and Toheeb Amuda, the
team’s researcher. All of them are 400-
Level students. Their lecturer, Dr Oduola
Orifowomo, was their coach.
For three days, the teams argued their
cases on the legality of outer space
science. The OAU team beat the University
of Pretoria and Niger Delta University at
the preliminary stages.
Phethole Sekhula, a South African lawyer,
Icho Kealetswe, an advocate of the High
Court of Botswana and Christopher
Okegbe, a solicitor from Nigeria presided
over the final.
The grand finale was a show of forensic
advocacy and oratorical skills as the
counsel came up with their arguments. For
every principle of law cited by the South
African team, the OAU counsel had an
answer.
It was be the fourth time OAU would be
winning the regional contest. It won it in
2011, 2012 and 2014. The team also won
the Best Written Brief of Argument award.
The OAU students described the feat as
“hard-won”, saying they faced many
hurdles to win the contest. They praised
their coach, whose expertise in space law,
they said, helped them to come up with
valid arguments.
Peace said: “The competition gave us the
opportunity to engage our peers in other
parts of Africa in an area of law which is
seemingly unregulated. We matched our
advocacy acuity with oratorical skills to
win the contest.”
Asked about the team’s winning secret,
John, the lead speaker, said: “From the
onset, we were confronted with vague
terms on the field of law that we were not
familiar with. It was our task to break it
down to understand the meaning of the
terms to present our cases in Space Law.
The team was conscious of the
responsibility placed upon it and we
moved faster to argue our points. The
victory was not easy to come by; we
fought hard and came out successful at
the end.”
Dr Orifowomo hailed the students for the
feat, saying his team proved to be
formidable with its grasp of the
fundamentals of space law as exhibited by
the members. He dedicated the victory to
the moot and mock group of its OAU’s
Faculty of Law, hailing its commitment to
the knowledge of space law.
Dr Orifowomo also praised the OAU Vice-
Chancellor, Prof Bamitale Omole, and the
Dean of Law, Prof M.O. Adediran, for their
support.
The OAU students will represent Africa in
the international edition of the contest in
Israel in October. It will be held during the
66th International Astronautical Congress.