ILSA News

ILSA is now accepting nominations for the 2025 Student Deak Award. The Student Deak Award is given annually to the best international law student article in a student-edited law journal. The award honors Francis Deak, a WWII veteran who wrote extensively on international law. The award is the student corollary to the Deak Prize separately awarded by the American Journal of International Law to a younger author for meritorious scholarship in the prior year’s volume of the Journal. Continue reading “2025 Student Deak Award” →

The American Society of International Law’s International Refugee Law Interest Group (IRLIG) is pleased to announce the tenth annual International Refugee Law Student Writing Competition Continue reading “Tenth Annual International Refugee Law Student Writing Competition” →

The 2025 recipients of the Rusty Dalferes Memorial Fund have been revealed. Continue reading “2025 Dalferes Laureates Announced” →

Continue reading “ILSA now Recruiting 2025-2026 Student Directors” →

ILSA has put together a short video walking you through everything you need to know to avoid getting memorial penalties. Continue reading “Guide to Memorial Penalties” →

With Jessup 2025 National and Friendly Rounds right around the corner, ILSA has enlisted the help of some Jessup veterans to walk judges through the do’s and don’ts of deliberation and giving feedback in these two videos. Continue reading “Jessup Judge’s guide to Deliberation and Feedback” →

The International Law Students Association is pleased to announce the launching of the ILSA / Hamilton Lugar International Law Moot Court Competition.

The moot is a simulation of oral argument before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Teams will argue both sides in a fictional dispute between two countries. Colleges and universities can enter up to five teams of two students apiece.

The Competition is open to undergraduate students in the United States. It is co-hosted and co-administered by the Hamilton Lugar School of Global & International Studies at Indiana University.

The Competition is based upon the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, which ILSA has administered annually since 1959. Now in its 66th year, the Jessup Competition is the largest competition in the world for law students, with more than 800 schools in 106 countries registered this year.

The Competition will take place 17-20 April 2025 at Indiana University Bloomington in Bloomington, IN. The Registration fee is $250 for the first team registered from a given school, and $200 for each team thereafter. Spots are limited.

Click here to learn more.

Back by popular demand, we’ve created a video summary of the Jessup 2025 Problem: the Case Concerning the Naegea Sea. Big shout out to Stephany Corzantes for making this a reality.

The contents of this video should not be considered as part of the Jessup Problem and does not alter it in any way. No one should rely on this video as a reliable source of fact for the Jessup 2025 Problem.

ILSA is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Prof. Cynthia Lichtenstein. Cynthia was a long-time member of ILSA’s Board of Directors and its Treasurer, as well as a Jessup coach and sometime Regional Administrator. She was a mentor to generations of law students, as well as several decades’ worth of ILSA Executive Office staff. In addition to her teaching and scholarship, Cynthia served as President of the American Branch of the International Law Association (ABILA) and as a member of the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law.

Our hearts go out to Cynthia’s countless students, mentees, and loved ones.

As teams turn their attention towards drafting their memorials, we would like to remind teams of Rule 5.17 – Abbreviations (including Acronyms and Initialisms) which states: Continue reading “List of Approved Acronyms as set out in Rule 5.17(b)” →