TALLAHASSEE —The Florida State University College of Law Moot Court Team has won first place in the World Finals of the 2011 Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition. The semifinal and final rounds of the competition were held October 4 and 6 at the High Court of Cape Town, South Africa. The team beat Georgetown in Washington, D.C., in April for the right to represent North America in the international competition.

Winning team members are third-year law students Tanya Cronau, from Port St. John and Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Lynn Guery, from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and 2011 graduate Anne Marie Rossi, from Tampa, Florida. They were coached by Tallahassee attorney Arthur Stern.

“We were all thrilled when Florida State won the right to represent North America,” said Dean Don Weidner. “To be the global winner has us all walking on cloud nine.”

Florida State defeated Saint Petersburg State University (Russia), the winner of the European round, in the semi-finals. They defeated the National University of Singapore, the winner of the Asia Pacific round, in the final round.  The judges for the final round were Judge Abdul Koroma, Judge Peter Tomka and Judge Xue Hanqin, all of the International Court of Justice.

“We’re on top of the world,” said Nat Stern, the team’s faculty advisor.

The Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition is sponsored annually by the International Institute of Space Law. The competition is based on a hypothetical space law dispute before the International Court of Justice.

For more information about the competition, visit: http://www.iislweb.org/lachsmoot/.