The moot court competition “Dispute Resolution in the EAEU 2025”
On 21 December 2025, the international law moot court competition “EAEU Dispute Settlement — 2025” concluded. The competition was organised by the Department of International Law of the V.M. Lebedev Russian State University of Justice jointly with the International and Comparative Law Research Center (ICLRC), with the support of the Eurasian Patent Office and the Russian Arbitration Center at the Russian Institute of Modern Arbitration.
The 2025 competition case file, “The Virtual Reality Case”, addressed the following topics: the powers of the Commission to monitor compliance with Union law; copyright and customs law in the era of artificial intelligence; judicial protection of individuals under EAEU law; and the impact of the case-law of the EAEU Court on the administration of justice in the Member States.
Twenty-three teams from Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Uzbekistan, and India took part in the competition.
The following universities advanced to the semi-final stage: Belarusian State University (Faculty of International Relations), the International University “MITSO” (Republic of Belarus), Saint Petersburg State University, RUDN University (Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia) named after Patrice Lumumba (Moscow), HSE University (Moscow), and the Ural State Law University named after V.F. Yakovlev (Yekaterinburg).
The final was preceded by a presentation of the textbook “Law of the Eurasian Economic Union” (ed. Tatyana Neshataeva) and the conference “The Risks of Expanding the Jurisdiction of the Court of the Eurasian Economic Union”. Opening remarks were delivered by Tatyana Neshataeva, Head of the Department of International Law of the V.M. Lebedev Russian State University of Justice, Doctor of Juridical Sciences, Professor, Judge of the EAEU Court, Deputy Chair of the Court of the EurAsEC, retired judge of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, Honoured Lawyer of the Russian Federation, and Academic Director of the competition; Sofya Sarenkova, Head of the International Public Law Programme at the International and Comparative Law Research Center; Pavel Myslivskiy, Competition Administrator, adviser to a judge of the EAEU Court, lecturer at the Department of International Law of the V.M. Lebedev Russian State University of Justice, Candidate of Legal Sciences; and Aleksey Dronov, President of the Court of the Eurasian Economic Union (video message).
At the conference, moderated by Tatyana Neshataeva, presentations were delivered by Zhanna Sedova, Doctor of Juridical Sciences, Professor at the Department of International Law of the V.M. Lebedev Russian State University of Justice (“Overriding mandatory principles and rules and their relationship with the principle of good faith”); Aleksei Petrenko, Dr. jur., Senior Research Fellow in International Public Law at the International and Comparative Law Research Center (“The significance of international law and systemic integration for the development of EAEU law in light of the ‘Aircraft’ case”); Igor Yurlov, Adviser at the Monitoring and Judicial and Legal Work Division of the Legal Department of the Eurasian Economic Commission, lecturer at the Department of Civil and Administrative Proceedings of the V.M. Lebedev Russian State University of Justice (“Monitoring in the EAEU: from theory to practice”); Aleksandra Mazka, prosecutor of the First Division for Supporting Disputes in International Arbitrations within the Directorate for Supporting International Disputes of the Main Directorate for International Legal Cooperation of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation (“On the jurisdiction of the EAEU Court to consider applications by individuals”); and Matvey Tarasov, winner and Best Speaker of the “EAEU Dispute Settlement–2018” competition as part of the team of the Ural State Law University named after V.F. Yakovlev, Candidate of Legal Sciences, LLM, dispute resolution lawyer at the Dyakin, Gortsunyan & Partners Law Firm (“Investment arbitration involving investors and states from the EAEU region”).
In the final round between the teams of HSE University (Moscow) and the Ural State Law University named after V.F. Yakovlev (Yekaterinburg), the panel of judges comprised Askar Kishkembayev, Deputy President of the Court of the Eurasian Economic Union, Professor at the Higher School of Law of M.S. Narikbayev KAZGUU University, Doctor of Juridical Sciences (Presiding); Natalya Pavlova, Judge of the Court of the Eurasian Economic Union from the Russian Federation, retired judge of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, Associate Professor at the Department of International Law of the V.M. Lebedev Russian State University of Justice, Candidate of Legal Sciences, Docent; and Yuliya Bogatina, Acting President of the Tenth Arbitration Court of Appeal, Associate Professor at the Department of International Law of the V.M. Lebedev Russian State University of Justice, Candidate of Legal Sciences, Docent.
Following the judges’ deliberations, the winner of the competition was declared to be the team of the Ural State Law University named after V.F. Yakovlev. The runner-up was the team of HSE University (Moscow).
Third place was shared by the teams of RUDN University named after Patrice Lumumba (Moscow) and Saint Petersburg State University. Diplomas for fifth place were awarded to representatives of the teams of Belarusian State University (Faculty of International Relations) and the International University (Republic of Belarus, Minsk).
In the “Best Written Submission” category, the prizes were awarded as follows:
- HSE University (Moscow)
- International University “MITSO” (Belarus)
- HSE University (St Petersburg), Belarusian State University (Faculty of Law), Saint Petersburg State University
The “Best Speaker in the Final Round” award was presented to Viktor Balakayev (team of the Ural State Law University named after V.F. Yakovlev).
The following awards were also presented:
- “Best Speaker of the Competition”:
- Darina Borzhovich (HSE University, Moscow)
- Arseniy Podshivalov (HSE University, Moscow)
- Victoria Lekomtseva (HSE University, St Petersburg)
- “Breakthrough of the Year”: Tashkent State University of Law (Republic of Uzbekistan)
- “For Determination to Win”: Belarusian State Order of the October Revolution and Order of the Red Banner of Labour Agricultural Academy (Republic of Belarus)