Yesterday, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) hosted the First Ibn Rushd Moot Court Competition.  The event, which concluded the legal advocacy component of the summer legal internship program, was held at the ADC National Headquarters. 

Each year, ADC receives hundreds of applications from highly qualified law students from across the United States for the Summer Legal Associate positions.  This summer, ADC welcomed four law students who have spent 10 weeks addressing all aspects of ADC's legal work. This year’s class of legal associates included: Dena Ghobashy, a second year at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Law; Margaret Maffai, a third year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School; Trent Taylor, a second year at the George Washington University Law School; and Nicole Pszczolkowski, a second year at George Mason University School of Law. 

In addition to the competition, each student is required to write a law review style paper with a minimum of 15-pages on any topic relevant to the legal issues addressed by ADC.  The fact pattern for this year’s competition, which included written briefs and oral arguments, dealt with issues related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

The event was judged by Tefft Smith, Esq. a senior litigation partner with Kirkland & Ellis, LLP, ADC Legal Director Nawar Shora, and ADC Legal Advisor Abed Ayoub.  Special guests included Senior DC Superior Court Judges Eugene Hamilton and Robert S. Tignor.  Other attendees included representatives from the US Department of Homeland Security Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (DHS CRCL), the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), and the US Treasury Department. 

The following law firms were also represented:  Sidley Austin LLP; Seyfarth Shaw LLP; Montagut & Sobral PC; Jorden Burt LLP; Stein, McEwen & Bui LLP; Jackson & Campbell PC; Shaw, Bransford, Veilleux & Roth PC; and Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker LLP.  ADC would like to extend its gratitude to Tefft Smith, Esq. and Kirkland & Ellis, LLP, for sponsoring this year’s event.

The competition was named after the renowned jurist Ibn Rushd, better known as Averroes. Ibn Rush was a Muslim Andalusian philosopher, jurist, and physician born in 1126 in Cordoba, Spain.  He came from a family of legal scholars and was judge in Seville and later served in many court appointments in Cordoba and Morocco.  His most famous work, The Decisive Treatise, which spans three decades, stresses the importance of analytical thinking in contrast to the more orthodox theological approach where the emphasis on extensive knowledge of sources.  He is often labeled as the father of modern secularism. 

Hebrew translations of his work also had a lasting impact on Jewish philosophy.  In the Christian world, his ideas were assimilated by Thomas Aquinas and others, especially at the University of Paris, which valued Aristotelian logic.  Famous scholastics such as Aquinas believed him to be so important they did not refer to him by name, simply calling him “The Commentator” and calling Aristotle “The Philosopher.”

Comments (0)

Write comment

Name

Title

Comment

Add Comment