Asia Pacific Regional Round, Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition 2027 at SMU Yong Pung How School of Law, Singapore

The Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition has been held every year since 1992 by the International Institute of Space Law (IISL). The IISL added the Asia Pacific Round in 2000, and the winner of this round represents the Asia Pacific region at the World Finals, held with the International Astronautical Congress and traditionally judged by Judges of the International Court of Justice.

The 2027 Asia Pacific Regional Round is hosted by the Yong Pung How School of Law, Singapore Management University (SMU), 55 Armenian Street, Singapore 179943. Indian law schools compete in this regional round: past Asia Pacific representatives at the World Finals include National Law School of India University, Bangalore and Symbiosis Law School, Pune.

The case for the 2027 competition is entitled Case Concerning International Responsibility and Liability for SSA Services and In-orbit Servicing (Agreed Statement of Facts). It is published on the IISL page for the 2027 competition (link below). Under the IISL AI Policy adopted in 2025, every team must submit the AI Use Disclosure Statement with its memorials.

• Open to teams of students enrolled in law schools, law faculties or law departments of educational institutions offering an LL.B, LL.M, J.D. or equivalent degree. Students of other schools may compete where space law or public international law forms part of the teaching programme.
• Under the Asia Pacific Regional Rules, students enrolled in an undergraduate law qualification, or a postgraduate coursework law qualification, at some time within six months before the start of the oral rounds are prima facie eligible.
• S.J.D., Ph.D. or equivalent students, and students who received their first law degree five or more years before 1 January of the competition year, are not eligible.
• Each team has 2 to 3 students. Only one team per school, faculty, department or institution.
• Each team must have a Faculty Advisor who is a staff member of the participating institution, and may have one Assistant Faculty Advisor.
• The IISL page states that a prior space law course is not a prerequisite; many schools without a space law course have won Regional Rounds and World Finals.

• Each team writes memorials for both the Applicant and the Respondent, addressed to the International Court of Justice, in Word format (doc or docx), citing in the Bluebook style.
• Teams for the oral rounds are selected on aggregate memorial scores, with geographical balance. Teams from a single country may not exceed 40 percent of the oral-round teams unless all other countries are represented.
• Oral rounds run at SMU from 25 to 29 May 2027: the opening ceremony and first preliminary round are on 25 May and the final is on 29 May.
• The language of the competition is English.

• Initial registration fee: SGD 800 per team.
• Initial registration fee for a team from a country hosting an authorised national funding round (Article 6 of the Regional Rules): SGD 400.
• Post-memorial fee for teams that qualify for the oral rounds: SGD 700, due by 1 May 2027, 23:59 SGT.
• Under the Regional Rules, a team from a developing country may apply in writing to the Regional Organizer for a full or partial fee waiver on grounds of financial hardship, before the registration deadline.

Fill in the SMU registration form (Request for Invoice) with the contact person, school name and address, team members and coach. The school manager then emails an invoice with payment instructions. The last day to pay the initial registration fee is 15 January 2027, 23:59 SGT (9:29 pm IST). Memorials are emailed to smulawmoots@sa.smu.edu.sg by 25 February 2027, 23:59 SGT (9:29 pm IST).

The winner of the Asia Pacific Regional Final receives an award and the right to advance to the World Finals. At the Regional Organizer's discretion, awards may also be given to the runners-up, the best memorials, the best oralist of the preliminary rounds and the best oralist in the final round.

The brochure attached to this post bundles the official IISL documents for this round: the Asia Pacific Regional Rules (2014), the Official Rules (2022 update), the IISL Licence and Declaration form for the Asia Pacific Round, the IISL AI Policy (2025) and the AI Use Disclosure Statement form.