In addition to our regularly offered courses, students may also earn additional credit by participating in a moot or working with a professor as a research assistant.

Moot Courts:

The University of Lucerne participates each year in a variety of moot court competitions. Incoming students are welcome to apply for a spot on one of these teams and may earn credit for their participation with the approval of the supervising professor, the student advisors, and the Dean. Participants can earn up to 15-20 ECTS credits for successful completion of a moot court. The following are descriptions of the various moot court competitions available at our school.

Inter-American Moot Court Competition

Supervisors: Prof. Alexander Morawa and Xiaolu Zhang, J.D.

Time Frame: Applications are due mid-late Fall semester. Memorial is due at the end of March, and the oral rounds are held in Washington, D.C. in May.

For more information, please visit the webpage of the Lucerne Inter-American Moot Court team

Willem C. Vis Moot Court

Supervisors: Prof. Daniel Girsberger & Prof. Andreas Furrer

Time Frame: Applications are due in the Spring before the start of the next academic year. Memorials due in December and January. Oral presentations are in Vienna in the Spring semester.

For additional information please visit the homepage of the Lucerne Vis Moot Court team.

European Law Moot Court Competition

Supervisor: Prof. Sebastian Heselhaus

Time Frame: Applications are due early in the Fall semester. Memorial is due in November with the results of the written phase announced by the end of the year or beginning of the next year. Regional finals takes place in February/March, and the All European final takes place in April.

For more information, please visit the chair webpage of Prof. Heselhaus

Concours Rene Cassin

Supervisors: Prof. Sebastian Heselhaus

Time Frame: This French language competition is held every year in Strasbourg. Memorials are due in February, and the best 16 teams chosen to compete will come to Strasbourg in the spring.

Pretoria World Moot Court

Supervisors: Prof. Alexander Morawa & Prof. Martina Caroni

Time Frame: This is a one semester moot court which takes place in South Africa in December. Memorials are due in October and final rounds will be held in December.

Lucerne Academy for Human Rights Implementation

For those students who are interested in coming to Lucerne, but cannot devote an entire semester, the University of Lucerne offers a three-week summer program on human rights law. The Lucerne Academy for Human Rights Implementation is a program of coursework and hands-on learning for law students and legal practitioners held at the University of Lucerne School of Law in Switzerland, in partnership with several distinguished international law schools. This is a summer law program with a distinctly global relevance. Given the realities of human rights implementation, the focus of the program will be on the challenges and practical aspects of litigation and advocacy of human rights. Students will not only learn about the field of human rights, but about how to incorporate that knowledge into the actual work of defending human rights. Special focus will be placed on advocacy skills such as case assessment, brief writing, and oral argumentation. To that end, the Academy will feature a prominent moot court exercise where students will litigate a hypothetical case from beginning to end, culminating in a program-wide competition.

For more information, visit our website at http://www.lucerne-academy.ch.

Additional Research Opportunities

Throughout the semester, we will offer opportunities to participate in research projects or to be hired as a research assistant for a professor.  When you confirm your enrollment in our transnational legal studies program, you will be added to a mailing list.  All research opportunities will be posted to that mailing list.  For individual arrangements, please contact our program office at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .