International Law Week 2026: Third RRU International Moot Court Competition and First RRU Lavad International Law Academy, Gandhinagar

Rashtriya Raksha University (RRU), an Institution of National Importance under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, invites national and international teams from all United Nations regions to International Law Week 2026, to be held on its Lavad-Dehgam campus in Gandhinagar, Gujarat from 20 November to 5 December 2026.

The Week is made up of two events run back to back:

• Third edition of the RRU International Moot Court Competition (RIMC 2026), 20 to 22 November 2026.
• First edition of the RRU Lavad International Law Academy (RLILA) on International Law, Global Peace and Security, 23 November to 5 December 2026.

The organising secretariat is the RRU Centre for International Law together with the School of Criminal Law and Military Law. The Week takes its cue from UN General Assembly resolution 79/120 of December 2024, which calls on universities to intensify the teaching, study and dissemination of international law, particularly for the benefit of persons from developing countries.

Rashtriya Raksha University was established by the Parliament of India under Act No. 31 of 2020 as the country's pioneering national security and police university. It builds an academic, research and training ecosystem for national security across education, research, training and extension.

The RRU Centre for International Law (RCIL) is chaired by Prof. (Dr.) Bimal N. Patel, Vice-Chancellor of the University, Judge Elect of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and a Member of the United Nations International Law Commission. Guided by its motto "Assess, Analyse and Adapt Emerging Perspectives of International Law", the Centre works at the intersection of international law and security.

The School of Criminal Law and Military Law (SCLML) is RRU's school for criminal, national security law and criminology, and hosts the Moot Court Committee that organises RIMC.

The Moot Court Proposition for RIMC 2026, titled The PrimeChain Case, was released on 25 July 2026. It is drafted to raise contemporary questions of international law and international security, argued before the International Court of Justice, and asks teams to apply established principles to evolving factual scenarios. Corrections and clarifications, where sought, will be published on the official documents Drive on 25 August 2026.

The RRU Lavad International Law Academy, launched this year, focuses on international law, global peace and security. It is intended to support the academic and professional development of students, researchers and young professionals, giving them an opportunity to engage with contemporary developments in international law and to interact with experts working in the field. Priority in the moot is given to teams that participate in both events.

The competition is open to students who are bona fide and regularly enrolled in an undergraduate law programme (3-year or 5-year LL.B. or its equivalent) at any recognised institution in India or abroad, duly accredited by the competent authority.

• For Indian teams, participation is restricted to students pursuing the three-year or five-year LL.B. course at a recognised institution in India.
• Foreign participants may also be pursuing an undergraduate degree in a field related to international law, provided they have received, or will receive while participating, adequate instruction in international law.
• A recognised institution may send only one team. Where a university has constituent colleges, each college may register a team, or the university may be represented by a single team drawn from different constituent colleges.
• A team shall comprise no more than three members and one team advisor in an official capacity. All three registered members may act as oralists, but in any given match-up two different oralists must argue two different issues.
• Cross-institutional teams and teams from RRU itself are not eligible.

Registration opened on 25 July 2026 and closes on 15 September 2026.

1. Email a Letter of Intent (LoI) and Letter of Authorisation (LoA) at the earliest to rlila@rru.ac.in, with a copy to ilc@rru.ac.in, to receive a team code. The LoA must be signed by the Head of the Institution, or the Head/Director of the Moot Court Committee, Law Department, Society or Association, and must name all three team members and the team advisor if any. Formats for both letters are in the official documents Drive.
2. Fill the Google registration form for your category, National Teams (India) or International Teams, and upload both memorials in it.
3. Registration is confirmed by the organisers, after which a unique team code is allotted and must be used in all further communication.
4. Teams will separately be sent a travel form to complete in due course.

The process runs: LoA and LoI submission, team code allocation, memorial submission, Memorial Elimination Round, Oral Rounds, awards and recognition.

Each team must prepare one Applicant and one Respondent memorial and upload both as separate PDF files in the registration form, titled "###A" and "###R", where "###" is the team code.

• Deadline: 15 September 2026. A disqualification deadline falls 48 hours later; memorials filed late but before it attract penalties of 5 points on the first day and 3 points per day thereafter.
• Format: A4 or letter size, margins of at least one inch on all four sides, Times New Roman 12 pt recommended including footnotes, 1.5 line spacing recommended except for the cover page, table of contents, index of authorities, headings and footnotes.
• Required parts, in order: Cover Page, Table of Contents, Index of Authorities, Statement of Jurisdiction, Questions Presented, Statement of Facts, Summary of Pleadings, Pleadings, and Prayer for Relief. Un-enumerated parts such as a Table of Abbreviations are prohibited.
• Word limits: Statement of Facts 1,200 words; Summary of Pleadings 700 words; Pleadings 9,500 words; Prayer for Relief 200 words.
• Apart from an ICJ logo on the cover page, memorials must consist exclusively of text. No images, video, audio or interactive elements. Links may appear inside citations but never in the pleadings.
• Teams must not reveal the identity of their institution, jurisdiction or nationality to judges at any point.
• AI policy: AI-assisted research, proof-reading, translation and internal briefings are permitted. Submitting AI-generated text as part of a memorial, or training an AI tool on the competition documents, results in automatic disqualification.

The competition runs in two stages.

• Memorial Elimination Round: every memorial is evaluated twice and team rankings are drawn from the average of the cumulative scores; ties go to an additional round of evaluation. Separate rankings are generated for Indian and foreign teams, and 30 teams are invited to the in-person rounds, with eight places reserved for teams from foreign jurisdictions. Memorial awards are decided on the unified ranking, not the separate ones.
• Oral Rounds: Preliminary Rounds in which each team argues twice, once as Applicant and once as Respondent, followed by four quarter-finals, two semi-finals and the Final Championship Round. Panels are of three judges. All rounds are in person on the RRU campus.

Results of the Memorial Elimination Round will be announced on 1 October 2026 on the LinkedIn and X pages of the RRU Centre for International Law (@rru_cil). All queries go to the Moot Court Committee at rimc@rru.ac.in; registered teams are assigned team buddies.

To encourage participation from all UN regional groups, a scholarship of up to USD 1,000 per team is awarded to the top twelve international teams. The published rules of scholarship state:

• The scholarship is a sustenance fund covering actual needs, not a flat cash award. The amount is set case by case on the team's country of origin, travel distance and genuine financial requirement. A team needing USD 300 receives USD 300; a team needing USD 1,500 receives USD 1,000.
• It covers travel, accommodation, boarding and other necessary sustenance costs during International Law Week, not flights alone.
• The amount is transferred directly to the selected teams' universities.
• Arrival and departure airports are decided by the RIMC Organising Committee, using the nearest feasible airport to the venue.
• Teams receiving the scholarship must remain present in person for the entire International Law Week, 20 November to 5 December 2026. The organisers ask teams to make a responsible and informed decision before accepting.

There is no registration fee. RRU has waived it to appreciate merit and to widen participation in international law studies and research, and asks participants in return to make the most of the RRU Lavad International Law Academy running alongside the moot. Teams that qualify through the Memorial Elimination Round to the Oral Rounds are charged no accommodation or food fee either.

Accommodation is provided to participating teams from 19 November 2026 to 6 December 2026. The campus mess seats over 500 at a time, and the University also offers guest accommodation, a gym and a library to visiting teams.

The venue is the Rashtriya Raksha University campus at Lavad, Dehgam, Gandhinagar, Gujarat 382305. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport is 35 km away, Ahmedabad 30 km and Gandhinagar 25 km. RRU reserves the right to modify or update any information in the brochure without prior notice.