LASU is Africa’s best

Despite the fee crisis rocking the Lagos State University (LASU), its students are still among the best in the world. Some of its law students displayed skill and dexterity at the Foreign Direct Investment International Arbitration Moot Court Competition. They emerged the best from Africa.

The competition, organised by the Centre for International Legal Studies, was held between November 4 and 6 at the Kings College, London. LASU representatives were Prof Olusegun Yerokun, Dean; Dr. Gbadebo Olagunju, lecturer, Department of International Law and Jurisprudence. The counsel, both 500-Level students, were Chinedu Geoffrey Ihenetu and Daniel Ogunbote.

Institutions in attendance included University of Barcelona, Universite Paris, I Pantheon Sorbonne, Universidad de Granada, Uni Curitiba, Suffolk Silesia, Russian Academy of Justice, Pepperdine University, Paris Dauphine, NUJS, Novosibirsk, Novi Sad, Northumbria University, New York University, Mykolas Romeris, Minas Gerais, Mgimo, Masaryk, Kyiv University, Kings College, Kaplan, City University, Hong Kong, Houston University, Charles University, Gujarat University, University of Belgrade, Georgetown University, Buenos Aires University, Belarusian University, Boston University and Ankara University.

The build-up to the oral finals included a written submission by more than 200 universities across the world. LASU was among the 36 invited for the finals. The LASU team competed against teams from Pepperdine University (US), Russian Academy of Justice (Russia), Buenos Aires University (Argentina) and Gujarat University (India).

Though the team lost at Round 16, just before the quarter finals, LASULAWS was crowned “The Best Team in Africa” and “14th” in the world. The counsel made the university, Nigeria and Africa proud by beating their American, Asian and European counterparts. Kings College, London won the competition.

The founder of the competition, Prof Martin Hunter, whose book on International Investment Arbitration is widely regarded in Europe as the “Bible” of this unique area of law, praised the LASU students.

Remarkably, in the World Student Arbitrator Rankings, Geoffrey was listed 41st   and Daniel, 78th out of 107 students. 

Geoffrey told CAMPUSLIFE that he was happy to fly the Nigerian flag. He called for more funding of such competitions.

 “We are calling on the government, organisations and individuals to put more into competitions like this so as to help wake law students from slumber and propel them to legal research”.