The 2025 International Criminal Court Chinese Moot Court Competition saw 105 teams participate, with the top 12 teams from the domestic stage advancing to The Hague, Netherlands, to compete for the ultimate honour at the International Criminal Court. The Southeast University Law School team ultimately qualified, breaking the national first-place record and securing the valuable opportunity to participate in the final round in The Hague, Netherlands, thereby setting a new record in the Law School's international moot court series!
This year's participating team adopted a cross-training model combining English and Chinese competitions. The team was guided by Professors He Yingxin and Zhang Yue from the School of Law at Southeast University. The team captain, Zhang Zixian (a 2022 undergraduate student from the School of Law), and team members Li Jiayu (a 2024 Master of Law student from the School of Law) and Fan Lingqi (a 2022 undergraduate student from the School of Law) served as the victim's counsel, prosecution counsel, defence counsel, while Xu Mingyao (a 2022 undergraduate student from the School of Law) and Aya Kizi Alxin (a 2022 undergraduate student from the School of Law) served as researchers.
The team adopted a mixed English-Chinese training model. In late September 2024, the team began preparatory work, and the competition topic was announced in October 2024. On 2 March 2025, after months of effort, the team completed nearly 4,000 words of Chinese pleadings for the prosecution, defence, and victim while preparing for the English competition.
In April 2025, after the pleading competition, our team successfully advanced to the courtroom debate phase, which consisted of two rounds. On 12 April, in the first round of the main competition, Zhang Zixian, Li Jiayu, and Fan Lingqi served as the victim's representative, prosecutor's lawyer, and defence lawyer, respectively, for three rounds of courtroom debates, while Xu Mingyao served as a researcher. After intense exchanges during the statement and rebuttal phases, the team successfully advanced to the top 24 nationally. In the second round of the main competition held on 13 April, the proportion of questions posed by the judges increased, testing the team's ability to adapt on the spot and their legal expertise. The three debaters delivered a more mature and impressive performance in the second round, ultimately advancing to the top 12 nationally and winning the national first prize.
High-quality development cannot be achieved without high-quality internationalisation; high-quality internationalisation cannot be achieved without the strong support of the college. In early March this year, the college held a special seminar on participating in international competitions, comprehensively summarising past experiences and lessons learned, systematically deploying competition strategies and resource保障, and establishing a comprehensive support system for participating in international competitions. This award marks the first time in history that our college has substantively entered the international competition arena, representing a milestone achievement in our college's participation in international competitions and the cultivation of foreign-related legal talent!
The School of Law at Southeast University has always adhered to the principle of ‘creating a first-class law discipline and cultivating first-class legal talent’ as its talent cultivation direction, and has always attached great importance to the cultivation of foreign-related legal talent. This competition not only fully demonstrated the international vision and debating skills of our students, but also marked the gradual realisation and fruitful results of our goal of strengthening the cultivation of foreign-related legal talent. ‘The road ahead is long and arduous, but I will seek it with all my might.’ Although this competition has come to a close, the journey of Southeast University's law students in exploring the realm of international law will continue far beyond this point. We wish the Southeast University Law School ICC team even greater breakthroughs in the upcoming ICCMCC series of competitions!