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Sofia University’s Team Comes Back with Two Prizes from a Prestigious International EU – CEEMC Law Competition

The Faculty of Law’s team at Sofia University won two prizes at the prestigious international CEEMC (Central and Eastern European Moot Court Competition), that took place on 20 – 23 April, 2018 in Wroclaw, Poland. Sofia University reached the competition’s semi-final and was awarded two prizes – “The best Written Defense” and “The best orator at the Competition”.

The competition has been taking place since 1996 and universities from Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Hungary, Malta, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine traditionally send their teams. The competition is organized with the support of the European Union Court and the Faculty of Law at Cambridge University, the Clifford Chance international attorneys’ office and the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple (a professional educational institution which provides compulsory training to law graduates who would like to continue their career as lawyers in England and Wales).

The competition is a simulation of prejudiciary legal procedure for the European Union Court and includes a viva and a written phase. The participation in an international competition of this kind helps the acquisition of knowledge in EU material law, develops skills for the writing of well structured and argued texts, and also the convincing presentation of arguments and improves one’s legal English.

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The team of Sofia University included Bozhidar Poukov, Maria-Magdalena Markova, Martin Yakimov and Vladimir Stefanov and they had the opportunity to plead in front of judges and attorneys general at the European Union Court. The jury consisted of the judges from the General Court Jan Paser, Kristina Kowalik-Banczik, Alexander Kornezov, the attorneys general Elionor Sharpston and Mihal Bobek and also a number of practising jurists from international attorneys’ offices and members of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple.

The preparation of the written and the viva part of the competition was monitored by the two instructors of the team – Tsvetelina Bayraktarova and Martin Bubarov, PhD students at the Faculty of Law of Sofia University. Tsvetelina Bayraktarova is currently a PhD student in Trade Law; she was the winner of “The Best Orator” Prize for 2016 and in 2017 and 2018 was the instructor of the University teams. This year Martin Bubarov, a PhD student in EU Law, joined in the team’s preparation. The preparation for participation at an international competition stimulates the development of analytical thinking, the process of conducting comprehensive and thorough research work on strictly specialized topics, the structuration of a logical written text and also improves the quality of team work.

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The teams from more than 10 universities from Central and Eastern Europe reached the viva part of the competition. The team of Sofia University passed successfully all the phases of the competition and reached the semi-final with some of the highest scores for oratorical skills, team work, and structured, logical and consistent presentation of the legal argumentation.

The team won “The Best Written Defense” Prize which is given for the best structured and analytical text supporting the position of both sides to the legal procedure of prejudiciary request at the European Union Court.

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The third-year student Maria-Magdalena Markova won “The Best Orator at the Competition” Prize. The award gives Maria-Magdalena Markova the opportunity to have an internship at the office of the attorney general Elionor Sharpston in Luxemburg under whose auspices the competition took place.