THE Norman Manley Law School recently placed among the top four schools in the Frankfurt International Investment Law Competition, again raising the flag of the Caribbean high.

In its latest achievement the law school placed fourth in the world in the Phillip C Jessup International Law Mooting Competition in Washington DC last month.

The Phillip C Jessup International Law Mooting Competition is widely regarded as the most prestigious international moot court competition worldwide.

The Norman Manley Law School team of Kamille Adair, Malene Alleyne, Marc Ramsay, Stephanie Forte and Cherisse Whitehall Small challenged more than 120 other law schools in Washington DC, and reached the semi-finals, winning head to head contests with seven international law schools along the way.

In addition to reaching the semi-finals of the competition, the Norman Manley team also won the award for best new team in the Jessup competition for 2011.

Three Norman Manley students placed among the top 50 oralists in the competition, with Kamille Adair placing 10th overall, Malene Alleyne 41st and Marc Ramsay 43rd, out of more than 2,000 speakers.

Norman Manley took part in four matches in the preliminary round. They beat the teams from Georgia (Tbilisi State University), Indonesia (Universitas Indonesia) and India (West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences) each by a 6-3 margin.

Norman Manley then beat a team from Iraq 9-0, and won a place in the advanced round of 32 teams.

In the advanced round, Norman Manley beat Durham University, United Kingdom (8-1), and prevailed by the same score against the American University in the Octo-finals.

In the quarter-finals, the Norman Manley team had the better of the national team from Israel (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) by 7-2.

For the semi-finals, Norman Manley were up against the University of Sydney (Australia), and in a closely fought contest, lost 4-5.

The University of Sydney emerged as the eventual winners of the competition.

Principal of the Norman Manley Law School, Professor Stephen Vasciannie, was ecstatic about the school’s performance.

“This was a brilliant performance by any measure, and the Norman Manley Law School offers special gratitude to the team for raising the standing of the school in this special way,” Vasciannie said.

“Not only does this performance show that we can take on top schools, it demonstrates that our students are among the best in the world. In intellectual terms, this is akin to taking a medal at the Olympic Games,” Vasciannie said.

Team members heaped praise upon staff and fellow students for their achievement, among them Prof Vasciannie, George Belnavis, who accompanied the team to Washington DC, senior tutor emerita Dorcas White, Hazel Edwards of the attorney general’s chambers, Prince Neto Waite, Merrick Watson, Gabrielle Elliot Williams, among others.