The weekend of March 24, six Brahmas are traveling to Duke University to compete in a national Moot Court competition. The students had to apply for the competition by writing a short case synopsis and then be chosen from what was likely 100's who applied. The students had to tryout in pairs. All 6 DBHS students who tried out were selected. The 3 "teams" are:

 

Hamzah Daud (11) and Pablo Martinez (12)

Ryan Luo (10) and Meghan Shen (12)

Amelie Lee (11) and Heidi Lou (11)

 

If you are interested in more information about it, read on.

The material that the students have to learn, memorize, then write an oral argument for is extremely difficult. Half of the students are arguing a land dispute case that is being fueled by an American drone flying over the disputed territory and killing insurgents who were hiding out there. The case precedent involved are cases, some 100's of years old, and 100's of pages long that have been decided in the International Court, in the Hague. The other half of the students are arguing whether or not a patent was wrongfully denied to a company that created a cloaking device for aircraft that is extremely similar to an American device that had already been created. The case precedent involved are all US Supreme Court cases and are very technical in nature. The students must now finish editing and memorizing their oral arguments before traveling to Duke where they will argue their case for 20 minutes each in front of a panel of judges who will interrupt them to ask questions throughout their argument. For added fun, students must prepare both sides of the argument and will only find out moments before each round of competition which side of their argument they have to argue. I have attached the case brief that the students were provided with if you are really curious.

Thank you for your support!

Advisers Latitia Thomas & Margaret Ku