The Claude Lombois competition is intended to vitalize and promote international criminal law, one of the pioneers was, in France, Claude Lombois (1934-2007). It aims to bring together, in French, for three days, eight or ten teams from French or foreign universities, each composed of three master’s degree level students.
The Claude Lombois Competition is organised annually by the association "Concours de droit pénal international Claude Lombois", within the context of the ex-PRES (Pôle de Recherche et d’Enseignement Supérieur bringing together the Universities of Limoges, Poitiers and La Rochelle) and with the possible support of other organisations. Since 2009, it has been held in alternation at the Faculty of Law and Economic Sciences of Limoges, the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences of Poitiers and the Faculty of Law, Political Science and Management of La Rochelle.
The tests are designed to develop in the competitors, in a spirit of conviviality, the qualities particular to Claude Lombois: eloquence, legal imagination and anticipation of opposing arguments. Participating teams are offered accommodation for the duration of the competition.
Teams must compete on a fictitious case of international criminal law subject to national or international jurisdiction, which is given to them fifteen days before the oral examinations.
They are invited to play alternatively the role of « public party » (depending on the case, prosecution before a national - real or fictitious - or international criminal court, public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation or Government before the European Court of Human Rights) and that of « private party » (depending on the case, person prosecuted before a national or international court, victim - civil party before a national - real or fictitious - court or petitioner before the European Court of Human Rights).
The same case is pleaded during the three days of the competition. The aim is to argue the case orally. The roles are drawn by lots at the beginning of each examination. The first day is devoted to the eliminatory confrontations, the second to the semi-finals and the last to the final. Each team has thirty minutes ; then the jury has twenty minutes to ask questions.
The competition took place on the 30th, 31st of January and 1st of February 2014 in La Rochelle.
The competition took place on the 18th and 19th of February 2011 in La Rochelle.
The team of the Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne Law School, composed of Amenda Cabrejo, Betty Huberman and Adèle Vidal-Giraud, won the 3rd edition of the Claude Lombois Moot Court Competition on Saturday, February 19th, 2011.
The team was facing the Limoges team composed of Miss Agathe Grenouillet, Guillaume La Verdure and Vincent le Junter in the final.
The jury chaired by Mr Gilles Straehli, adviser to the criminal division of the Court of Cassation, awarded the following prizes:
Finally, the prize awarded by the students participating in the PhD seminar associated with the competition, and named "prix des juristes corsaires", went to the Romanian team from Cluj-Napoca (Cristina Dan, Gabriela Bucataru and Lucian Criste).
International criminal law PhD seminar associated with the competition
The competition is combined with a seminar for PhD students in criminal law, international criminal law, and international and European law, and more generally for any PhD student interested in the "challenge" which consists in reflecting collectively and in a given time on a practical case, making an inventory of the arguments for and against and defining strategies (defence and prosecution) if necessary evolutive. It will consist of two parts:1. A case studyThe PhD students participating in the seminar receive the case on the same day as the competing master teams, mid-January. They work on it, alone or in groups.2. An initiation to evaluationSeminar participants are invited to award a prize, the purpose and winner(s) of which they collectively determine.
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