The Jessup Experience: Theominique D. Nottage

The Jessup experience goes beyond the confines of the English language and is something that is intangible and difficult to explain as it is something that must be experienced personally, but I will do my best to impart the highlights of our entire Jessup experience, which to say the least was the embodiment of AMAZING.

Firstly, I appreciated the Jessup experience so much more than I think I would’ve had it not been for the difficulty and challenges faced in organizing the trip itself. We were truly blessed with the opportunity to compete and this in itself gave our team a lot more heart than we may have had otherwise.

Secondly, I was beyond excited at the chance to interact with other young legal minds of the international community, as an international relations “geek” and an avid proponent of global citizenship. Global citizenship is about examining your existence in relation to an international standard and tailoring your goals to compete on a global level.

The Jessup, as an advocacy competition, is incomparable to any other international law moot competition as almost every country of the international community sends their best law students to compete – therefore our team had no choice but to have an international standard and be the best not just on a local, national or regional level but on a global level as well.

Additionally, the Jessup experience reflects the importance of global citizenship. Our team in representing The Bahamas, represented a country with a total population the size of some of the student populations of universities in countries that other teams represented. We competed against Ireland, Spain, China and Russia in the preliminary rounds. Although we came from a small country with limited expertise in the field of international law, we could not allow that to operate as an excuse. Besides this, we not only made life-long connections with these teams, but also made lasting friendships with the teams from Jamaica and Sri Lanka among others.

Thirdly, the Jessup experience went beyond the competition itself and was complemented by the opportunity to visit some of Washington, D.C.’s most popular monuments, with special reference to the newly built Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial and the occasion to lunch with His Excellency Ambassador C.A. Smith at the exclusive Georgetown Club in historic Georgetown.

Finally, the opportunity to compete in the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Competition can only be described as a dream come true for me as it served as a personal reinforcement of which avenue I would like to take in pursuit of my professional and academic goals.

Although I have always wanted to be an attorney-at-law, it wasn’t until my undergraduate studies in international relations that I realized the kind of law that held my interest – international law.

International law in The Bahamas is not a popular vein of legal practice. One would find that most Bahamian lawyers prefer to walk the tried and true routes of criminal law, commercial law and civil litigation. There exists a myriad of quotes and sayings about following your passion and doing what you love as a career choice and for me competing in the Jessup was a culmination of the same.

The Jessup Experience: Bjorn Ferguson

The 2012 Phillip Jessup experience will be forever lasting in my mind. The fact that a small island nation from a relatively young law programme was able to go up against more experienced institutions and students and hold its own validates the programme. This is very significant in my mind because, locally there is a misguided thought, that Bahamians can not compete or are afraid to compete. The Jessup experience has also demonstrated to me that this nationalistic approach to development locally, may do more harm than good. Quite naturally, that approach limits us in our ability to seek solutions to problems that have already been solved. Jessup has shown that we can turn to international law to resolve many of the daunting and complex social issues currently being encountered.

Secondly, the Jessup has shown the world that we are competent and able to compete among the best of them. Therefore, I hope that going forward through experiences like the Jessup we deliver our country men from this fear. This xenophobia, that exist among us.

Additionally, the Jessup also demonstrates to me how the legal profession locally is suffering in vision. We constantly look at the numbers of attorney who join the profession annually and ask ourselves "where is the work going to come from for all these attorneys?" But the Jessup has shown that in the arena of International Law, the Bahamas and the region has major ground to make up. There are huge opportunities in this area of the law. With the prospects of oil being discussed locally, the Jessup has showm me that the regulatory framework we seek is to be found in the arena of International Law.

So with that being said I would encourage all law students to broaden their horizons and think beyond the borders of the Bahamas. The legal profession is indeed a global one and it is manifested in the arena of International Law. I have found the light through the Jessup Experience!