Lovelyn Tayuwijaya
As the 2021 Asia Cup ILMCC season has ended, I look back at my experience competing with incredible fondness. The way Asia Cup works is that qualifying legal memorials determine only one team who will get to represent each country into the international rounds of the competition. As a first-year law student with a very limited knowledge of the law, I did not expect to advance into the oral pleading rounds of the 2021 Asia Cup ILMCC, let alone advance into the final rounds! The joy was two-fold, since all of this year’s Asia Cup Team members are first-year students who have not taken the international law class in our studies. To me, this means endless possibilities for PILS to excel in future competitions. Needless to say, advancing to where we got in the competition was a very welcomed surprise.
The last time UNPAR represented Indonesia was back in 2015. I exercised healthy caution as I thought, “can we repeat this historical achievement this year?” But the team reformed this doubt into encouragement, and we told ourselves endlessly to commit to the work. It was this commitment that really drove our enthusiasm up to finish every task we have as best as we could.
I still remember, the night of the announcement for advancing to the international round was very nerve-wracking. But when we opened the announcement email together, our team number was inside as one of the chosen teams. We were all very shocked and felt incredibly honoured that we would represent Indonesia this year. It was the best feeling ever: our restless nights of researching and drafting finally paid-off.
Nevertheless, that announcement also meant that our journey was far from over. The next phase is perhaps the most daunting of all: oral pleadings. Personally, this phase was very challenging, and I knew that oral pleadings entails specific techniques and art which would require me to intensively learn and practice it. I must admit that there was a tough time when every single one of the team members experienced burnout and were discouraged. But one thing I am very grateful for is that we always supported each other to the best of our abilities. Not only within the team-members, but our coaches as well. Our coaches always encouraged us and believed that we could win the competition despite our lack of experience.
Time went by and we were relieved that the preliminary round had finished. Surprisingly, our journey continued as we advanced to the semi-finals. After the semi-finals were completed, another surprising announcement came to us on 17 August 2021, right on Indonesia’s independence day, that we were finalists in the 2021 Asia Cup ILMCC. Those were very unexpected and incredible blessings. We remain incredibly honoured to finish as the first runner up against Singapore Management University, who were very worthy opponents, having won as Asia Cup champions repeatedly in the last decade alone.
I must say, this is a once in a lifetime experience. This competition has taught me that it does not matter where you were when you started, what matters is how far you can grow. It does not matter when we were only first-year students with no experience nor knowledge, as long as we are eager to learn, grow, persevere, and do not give up nothing is impossible. Most importantly, this competition and the processes have taught me what it takes to successfully compete in an international competition. I look forward to our next one.
Lovelyn Tayuwijaya is a first-year law student at the Law Faculty of Universitas Katolik Parahyangan and member of Parahyangan International Law Society. She is one of the delegates in the 2021 Asia Cup International Law Moot Court Competition.