Abhimanyu George Jain and Raeesa Vakil, fourth year students of NLSIU Nagarbhavi, Bangalore, have won the Manfred Lachs International Space Law Moot Court Competition held in South Korea. The contest was judged by sitting judges of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), The Hague, held during October 12 to 16, 2009.

The team from NLSIU, represented the Asia-Pacific region in the world finals of the Manfred Lachs International Space Law Moot Court Competition, held during the 60th International Astronautical Congress last week. The team comprised of Abhimanyu George Jain , Raeesa Vakil and Shwetank Ginodia. Raeesa Vakil was adjudged the Best Speaker and won the Sterns and Tennen Award for Best Oralist.

The other two World Finalists were Georgetown University, USA (winner of the North American Regional Round), and Strathclyde University, UK (winner of the European Regional Round). NLSIU defeated Strathclyde University in the semi-finals before going on to defeat Georgetown University in the finals. The final was judged by three sitting judges of the ICJ. The NLSIU Team was sponsored by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NLSIU. The first Indian participation in this moot court competition was in 2004, when an NLSIU team reached the world semi-finals and no Indian team has won the regional round since then.