A team of undergraduate students from the Law School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens has achieved a notable distinction at the European Law Moot Court Competition (ELMC) 2025-2026. After successfully completing the written phase of the competition by submitting written pleadings, the team advanced to the Regional Final in Bratislava, held from 5 to 8 February 2026. The students received particularly high grades for their written submissions and delivered outstanding oral pleadings during the hearings, achieving an excellent overall performance.
The Athens Law School team comprised the undergraduate students Anastasia-Ioanna Anastasaki, Despina Damigou-Zamanika, Ariadni Mathioudaki, and Stavroula Bouterakou.
Established in 1989 and organised under the auspices of the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Law Moot Court Competition (http://www.europeanlawmootcourt.eu/) brings together teams of undergraduate and postgraduate students from more than 80 universities across Europe and the Americas, including the College of Europe, Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, University College London, KU Leuven, and the University of Bologna.
The competition simulates proceedings before the Court of Justice of the European Union and consists of both written and oral phases. A distinctive feature that sets the ELMC apart from other moot court competitions is its bilingual format, which is itself assessed: participants must plead in both English and French.
This year’s case addressed complex issues of contemporary significance in EU law, including:
- the horizontal direct effect of the provisions of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union for private individuals not only when Union law is applied, but also in private contractual relations, allowing national courts to disapply or interpret private contractual terms;
- the legality of fixed-per-capita awards—differentiated by gender and age—for non-material damage arising from representative actions concerning data protection breaches, in light of Article 82 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation) and Article 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union; and
- the compatibility with Article 63 TFEU of national legislation restricting third-party litigation funding to entities established within the European Union.
Alexandra Alexaki, Maria-Eleni Kotzia, and Sofia Bandana—members of last year’s ELMC team—prepared this year’s participants. Assistant Professor I. Kourtis also made a significant contribution.
The team enjoyed the academic guidance of Associate Professors R. Papadopoulou and E. Perakis.
We are also grateful to Dryllerakis and Kyriakides Georgopoulos Law Firms, whose generous sponsorship enabled the team to participate in the competition.
