The team from the Law School of Mykolas Romeris University (MRU) has successfully advanced to the Final Oral Round of the 14th Helga Pedersen Moot Court Competition, one of the most prestigious student moot court competitions in Europe dedicated to the European Convention on Human Rights.

The MRU team consists of Olena Leshchenko and Magda Khalvashi, students of the Joint Master’s Programme in European and International Business Law. The team is coached by doctoral candidate Ivan Sukhorukov. The students represented the University at the Regional Oral Round held in Birmingham, United Kingdom. During the competition, the MRU team competed with leading European universities, including the University of Birmingham and Utrecht University.

Following the evaluation of both written submissions and oral pleadings, the MRU team placed 3rd in Oral Pleadings and 4th overall in the Birmingham Regional Round. By finishing among the four highest-scoring teams, the MRU team secured a place in the Final Oral Round of the competition.

In total, 18 teams out of 56 participating teams advanced to the Final Oral Round, placing the MRU team among the leading participants in the competition. Mykolas Romeris University will represent Lithuania at this stage as the only Lithuanian university to have qualified for the Final Oral Round.

The Final Oral Round will take place in Strasbourg, France, from 1 to 5 June 2026, with hearings held at the Council of Europe’s Palais de l’Europe and the European Court of Human Rights.

The team is now continuing its intensive preparation for the final stage of the competition, where it will represent MRU and Lithuania among the strongest teams in Europe, competing before distinguished experts in human rights law.

More about the students’ preparation and the competition can be found here.