The Russian Law Tournament is recognized as the largest national competition in the field of law, which brings together university teams from many Russian cities - from Moscow to Vladivostok. The tournament is held in the format of a game trial (moot court) and provides for two stages - teams drafting written positions on the competition case and presentations at in-person hearings. The topics of the competition case change every year - this year the participants were offered a case on criminal law and procedure.
139 teams took part in the extramural stage of the tournament, of which 12 strongest teams were selected to participate in the oral rounds of the competition, held at the Moscow campus of RANEPA.
According to the results of the oral rounds, the following teams reached the semi-finals:
- Far Eastern Federal University (Vladivostok),
- Tomsk State University,
- National Research University Higher School of Economics (St. Petersburg),
- RANEPA under the President of the Russian Federation (Moscow).
Arbitrators of the in-person stage were leading lawyers and partners of the Firm, as well as such law firms as Sotheby's, Feoktistov & Partners, Romanov & Partners Law Firm, Case, BGP Litigation and Golenev & Partners.
In the final round of the competition the teams of RANEPA (Moscow) and National Research University Higher School of Economics (St. Petersburg) competed. The arbitrators of the final round were Denis Saushkin, attorney-at-law, senior partner at ZKS, Nadezhda Moiseeva, attorney-at-law at Pen and papers, and Pavel Khlyustov, attorney-at-law, general partner at Pavel Khlyustov & Partners.
The winner of the Russian Law Tournament in 2022 was the team of the National Research University Higher School of Economics (St. Petersburg). Second place went to the team of RANEPA, represented by 3rd year students of ILNS RANEPA: Daniil Osipov, Polina Kholopova and Maria Sovetkina.
The arbitrator of the final round Denis Saushkin expressed his dissenting opinion, supporting the RANEPA team. Thus, according to the arbitrator, the legal positions of the representatives of the defense and prosecution were equal, at the same time, the prosecution (the team of RANEPA) showed special skills of quick response to unforeseen situations in the process, flexibility of thinking and performed well in the final round.
At the closing ceremony, the tournament arbitrators also awarded teams in additional nominations:
- Best Prosecution Memorandum - a team from the S. Y. Witte Moscow University,
- Best defense memorandum - team of Tomsk State University,
- Best Orator - Vyacheslav Yurtaev, team of Far Eastern Federal University,
- Excellent teamwork - team of Far Eastern Federal University.
The partners of the tournament were Sotheby's law company, publishing house “Justitsinform”, Moscow branch of The Russian Federal Bar Association, as well as the Faculty of Law of Lomonosov Moscow State University.
The organizers would like to express their special gratitude to Andrey Kozlov, Managing Partner of RussianLegal; Anastasia Ivenskaya, Specialist of the Russian-European International Center for Legal Research and Legal Education Programs of the ILNS RANEPA; and Tatiana Ivanova, Director of the Russian Law Tournament, Candidate of Legal Sciences, Associate Professor of the Speransky Law Faculty of the ILNS RANEPA.
The Russian-European International Center for Legal Research and Legal Education Programs of ILNS RANEPA organizes the Russian Legal Tournament and prepares RANEPA teams for participation in national and international student legal competitions.
