Pepperdine Caruso Law Students Win International Moot Court Competition in Law and Religion
This week, Pepperdine Caruso Law third-year law students Brooke Newman, Robin Reikes, and Kylie Thornburg competed in the International Moot Court Competition in Law and Religion. The competition took place in Rome at the University of Notre Dame and concerned a similar fact pattern to the Ninth Circuit’s divided en banc decision in Apache Stronghold v. United States. The competition brings together judges and students from different jurisdictions to reflect, argue, and learn about the most pressing issues of religious freedom. Teams from several countries litigate in the European Court of Human Rights and the U.S. Supreme Court about the same facts according to the European Convention of Human Rights or the U.S. Constitution. Other participants included teams from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Brigham Young University, Bocconi University, Emory School of Law, Notre Dame Law School, and St. John’s University School of Law.
Caruso Law won first place in the competition and Kylie Thornburg was named Best Oralist. “We are incredibly proud of Ms. Newman, Ms. Reikes, and Ms. Thornburg for representing Caruso Law so well at this competition,” said Paul Caron, Duane and Kelly Roberts Dean of Caruso Law. “Their hard work, professionalism, and intelligence is a credit to our community.”
Director of the Interschool Appellate Advocacy Program, Mark Kubisch, observed “Members of our Caruso Law Moot Court Team have now won both a national and an international law and religion moot court competition in a single year. I am grateful to our team members for their commitment to excellence.” Kubisch added, “I also am thankful for the Hugh and Hazel Darling Foundation Religious Liberty Clinic at Pepperdine as several of our competitors have participated in that clinic and that unique experience has positioned them well for success in these competitions and beyond.”
Caruso Law congratulates the competitors for their outstanding win in this competition!