2027 Inter-American Human Rights Moot Court Competition
Celebrating 32 Years!
2027 TOPIC
Democracy, Human Rights and Participation
May 16th - 21st, 2027
About the Competition
The Competition is a unique trilingual (English, Portuguese, and Spanish) event established to train law students on how to use the Inter-American human rights legal system as a legitimate forum for redressing human rights violations. Since its inception in 1995, it has trained over 5000 students and faculty participants from over 370 universities from the Americas and beyond. Written on a cutting-edge topic currently debated within the Inter-American system, the hypothetical case operates as the basis of the competition, and students argue the merits of this case by writing legal memoranda and preparing oral arguments for presentation in front of human rights experts acting as the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
About 2027 registration:
Registration for the 2027 #IAMOOT will be open soon. Please be advised that in order to complete your registration, you must have a Google Account. When the Google Forms are open, keep in mind that you will have to click on the upper right button on this screen menu to access the registration forms. The button says: "Registration and other forms". You are required to be logged into your Google Account to provide all the requested information successfully. Furthermore, be advised that besides IAMOOT regular Google Forms, you will be required to fill out mandatory American University forms if you are paying via Credit Card. All relevant links are available on the right side of this menu. If any problem or question arises during your registration process, don't hesitate to get in touch with us at [email protected]
Please kindly note that most of the links below, “Registration will be open soon,” remain inactive. Bear with us. IAMOOT 2027 Registration will be open by December 2026.
32nd Anniversary - Rule Changes
The Inter-American Moot Court Competition Technical Committee has decided to continue implementing the rule changes introduced during our 30th anniversary, following their successful implementation and the positive reception they continued to receive from our academic community during the 31st anniversary. These changes were based, among others, on feedback from teams, coaches, and judges, and have contributed to making IAMOOT a more comprehensive experience for all our participants while providing a more enriching academic journey. Accordingly, the same rule changes will continue to apply to the 2027 Competition, with no additional modifications beyond those expressly mentioned herein. They reflect the continued evolution of the Competition and the legacy of more than 5,000 students and faculty participants from over 370 universities throughout its history.
- Teams will be assigned to prepare written and oral arguments in both roles: Victims and the State. Teams will remain composed of two speakers and one or two coaches;
- Teams will be required to prepare two legal memorandums: one for the Victims and one for States;
- Memorandums will be 10,000-12,000 words each. The memorials will continue to be assessed based on the same system of scores that has been used in the Competition. Check the 2026 Rules for information regarding format, structure, and Researchers;
- Each team will participate in only two preliminary oral rounds. In one round, the team will perform as the Victim; in the other, it will perform as the State;
- For the preliminary rounds, judges will deliberate immediately after each round and decide which team has won the session. No scoring system will be used to determine the winner of each confrontation. However, only the winner of the first preliminary round in which each team participates will be disclosed. This means that the winners of the second preliminary round will remain undisclosed until the announcement of the teams advancing to the semifinal;
- In the preliminary rounds, teams winning two rounds will automatically qualify for the semifinals. Teams that lose their two rounds will not advance to the semifinals. Teams that lose one round and win another may advance based on the average score of the two memorials submitted. Only a limited number of teams in this category will be selected for the semifinal;
- Individual speakers’ scores will remain awarded based on the criteria for points scores assigned by the judges in the rounds;
- Scores from the semifinal rounds will remain awarded based on points score criteria, in the same way it has been done in previous years. Only the best Victim and the best State will advance to the Final Round.
Rules and registration forms will be published in December 2026 - stay tuned. Our 32nd anniversary has begun.
The 2027 Hypo Case Authors & Topic
We are pleased to confirm that, for the 2027 Inter-American Human Rights Moot Court Competition, the Academy will be collaborating with the GQUAL Campaign, and the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), in the development of the hypothetical case.
The 2027 case will seek to present cutting-edge and innovative legal discussions around democracy and the participation of individuals within the broader framework of international human rights law. Through the hypothetical, we hope to engage students with important and evolving questions that are currently part of the regional human rights conversation and that the Inter-American Human Rights System is increasingly being called upon to address.
More information about the authors of the 2027 hypothetical case will be available soon.
Learn more about the work of the GQUAL Campaign here: https://gqualcampaign.org/
Learn more about the work of CEJIL here: https://cejil.org/
Looking Ahead to IAMOOT 2027 and what it has to offer;
We look forward to a special IAMOOT 2027 experience. This will be our 32nd anniversary. Working with prominent non-profits such as CEJIL and the GQUAL Campaign upholds the historic mission of this program to promote human rights education with attainable and realistic objectives, making sure that the Inter-American System is not a remote institution inaccessible to common and regular students, but a space for debate and innovation where everybody feels welcome.
#IAMOOT2027 #32ANNIVERSARY