General Sir John Kotelawala Memorial Moot Court Competition – 2023

General Sir John Kotelawala Memorial Moot Court Competition organized by the Moot Court and Debating Society of the Faculty of Law, General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (MCDS-KDU) was held on the 13th, 14th and 16th of March 2023. This is the only local moot court competition focusing on Sri Lanka’s Domestic Criminal Justice System, aiming to provide a platform for enthusiastic Law Students from all Law Schools in the country to sharpen their advocacy skills and an opportunity to explore the intricacies of the domestic legal system.

Preliminary Rounds of the Competition took place on a virtual platform, while the four outstanding teams that made it to the Semi Finals, were hosted at the Faculty of Law. The result of several months’ efforts by the Society, the Competition involved participants from all Law Schools in Sri Lanka, including the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka Law College, Open University of Sri Lanka, Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology (APIIT), Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT),  Royal Institute of Colombo and CFPS Law School.

Over thirty competitors put up a spirited battle for the Championship, with the team from  APIIT ultimately emerging as Champions in the Oral Rounds with the team from KDU emerging as Runner-up of the Competition. Kaif Sally from KDU received the Award for the Best Oralist while Ashan De Alwis from KDU received the Award for Best Oralist Runner-up. The team representing Royal Institute Colombo received the Spirit of the Moot Award. The team from APIIT secured the Award for the Best Memorandum-Appellant and the team from  University of Colombo secured the Award for the Best Memorandum-Respondent.

Hon. Nimal Siripala De Silva, Minister of Ports, Shipping and Aviation was the Chief Guest of the event. Minister De Silva was invited as the Chief Guest in appreciation of his contribution as the Minister of Justice by taking the initiative to grant exemptions to the KDU LLB Graduates from the Preliminary and Intermediate Examinations of the Sri Lanka Law College by issuing a Ministerial Direction in 2020 to the Council of Legal Education. The event was also graced by Maj. Gen. Milinda Pieris, Vice Chancellor of KDU, Maj. Gen. Lal Gunasekara, Rector, Metropolitan Campus of KDU, Prof. Sanath Dhammika, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) of KDU, Brig. Upali Rajapakshe, Dean, Faculty of Graduate Studies and  Col. Pradeep Ratnayake, Dean, Faculty of Defence and Strategic Studies, Mr. Mangala Wijesinghe, Dean, Faculty of Law and Heads of Departments of the Faculty of Law, KDU. Members of the Academic and Administrative Staff, and the students of the Faculty of Law were also present at the event.

During the course of the event the e-version of the Issue-I, Volume-3 of the KDU Law Journal was released by the Vice Chancellor. A copy of the printed version of the Journal was handed over to the Vice Chancellor by the Dean, Faculty of Law.