Dual BA Students Win French Title in Prestigious International Law Competition

Sciences Po Dual BA students Nathan Darmon ‘25GS, Varun Mandgi ‘25GS, and Emily Ni ‘25GS are part of a five-member team that has claimed the French national title for the highly competitive Philip C. Jessup Cup.

March 24, 2023

As one of the oldest and largest international law championships, the Phillip C. Jessup Cup draws a huge crowd of law students from across the globe each year to participate in a simulated legal dispute, formally known as a moot court. Amidst this stiff competition, a five-member underdog team of Sciences Po undergraduates claimed the 2023 Jessup Cup French National Title. Three team members—Nathan Darmon ‘25GS, Varun Mandgi ‘25GS, and Emily Ni ‘25GS—are in their second-year of the Dual BA Program between Columbia University and Sciences Po and currently study at the Reims campus. 

Each year, the Jessup Cup features a different fictional legal conflict between nations, with this year’s topic titled “The Case Concerning the Clarent Belt.” Participants prepare their arguments as if they were presenting before the International Court of Justice, the judicial organ of the United Nations, and are judged by a prestigious gathering of volunteer attorneys. “Competing in the Jessup Cup was exhilarating,” said Darmon, who counts Paris and New York as his hometowns and is majoring in law and government at Sciences Po. “There was a thrilling excitement in all those late nights spent scrambling to find original arguments and proudly standing our ground in front of Europe's toughest lawyers.”

“I am proud to have gotten so far as one of the rare undergraduate teams, without any coaching or prior experience, and could not be happier to have gone through this journey with those that have now become some of my closest friends.”

Hand-in-hand with the intellectual rigor and professional opportunities of the Jessup Cup, one of the most rewarding parts of the tournament was the social element, from collaborating as teammates, to connecting with esteemed legal professionals and fellow students during the competition itself. “The diversity of our team—through our different cultural, national, and ideological backgrounds—has made working on Jessup a true pleasure,” shared Ni, who hails from Vancouver and is majoring in politics and government at Sciences Po. Mandgi, who shares Ni’s major and whose hometown is Richmond, Virginia echoed that sentiment: “Working on Jessup is the most exciting thing I have done this year. We got to meet some of the most impressive lawyers in Europe, and all of the stress during rounds and preparing for them was worth it because we also made so many friends during the tournament with other schools.”

The adventure is truly just starting for the team as they are planning to head to the international rounds of the Jessup Cup, happening this April in Washington D.C. Darmon, Mandgi, and Ni are also nearing the next chapter of their Dual BA journey; they’ll be arriving at the Morningside campus this fall, planning to major in philosophy, economics-philosophy, and political science respectively at Columbia. Whatever excitement lies ahead, this group of students have already shown what incredible results determination, teamwork, and a refusal to be intimidated out of recognizing your own potential can get you. As Darmon put it, “I am proud to have gotten so far as one of the rare undergraduate teams, without any coaching or prior experience, and could not be happier to have gone through this journey with those that have now become some of my closest friends.”