UCC Law students’ success in Irish Red Cross International Humanitarian Law competition 31st March 2025

31 Mar 2025

Two teams of UCC law students took part in the annual Irish Red Cross Corn Adomnáin competition this weekend at Queen’s University Belfast. 

The competition tests the students’ knowledge and application of the laws of war in a variety of challenging real-life scenarios, such as negotiating humanitarian access to civilian populations in need, access to detained prisoners of war and making real-time operational decisions in a video simulation of an armed attack. The competition concluded with an international treaty negotiation exercise, in front of representatives of the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, based on the proposed convention regulating Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS).

After a nail-biting photo finish, the UCC Team A came a well-deserved second overall in the competition, just behind the winning team from the Law Society. UCC Team A was comprised of Lya Nolan (BCLI2), Evalina Schneider (LLB1) and Nancy Elabbas (LLM IHRL&PP). A total of 11 teams from universities across the island of Ireland took part in the competition, including UCC Team B comprised of Marta Correra (LLM IHRL&PP), Izabella Carvalho (EBCL4) and Alusine Kamara (LLM IHRL&PP). Both teams received comprehensive support from Charmaine Nuujoma (LLM IHRL&PP) who attended as an observer. Congratulations to all our UCC law students who took part in the competition.

In advance of the competition, a total of eight undergraduate and postgraduate law students undertook an intensive course in international humanitarian law led by Dr Dug Cubie., Dr Marie Aronsson-Storrier and Dr Luigi Lonardo.