The Yale IV 2018 was won by Harvard CH (John Hunt and Sophia Caldera) from Opening Government. They debated the final on the motion "This House would legalize and train sex workers specifically to work with disabled people" against Brown GG (Jack Gramlich, Sandy Greenberg) in Closing Opposition, Harvard BrMe (Ed Bracey, Dasha Metropolitansky) in Closing Government, and Princeton AO (Samuel Arnesen, Sinan Ozbay) in Opening Opposition. The final was chaired by Michael Mao with Bobbi Leet, Charlie Barton, Daniel Berman, Lorenzo Pinasco. The Novice Final of the tournament was won by  Princeton JW (Daniel Ju, Greg Weaving) in Opening Government, on the motion "This House believes that the horrors of history are incompatible with a belief in ...

The World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) 2018 in Mexico, which took place 28.12.17-04.01.18, are concluded and the champions for the three language categories have emerged. Open Champion is Harvard, ESL-Champion is Oxford and EFL-Champion is Comillas. The finals were hosted in the historical Teatro de la Ciudad Esperanza Iris in the centre of Mexico-City. [caption id="attachment_33275" align="alignright" width="400"] The Open Final - © Jacky Hsinghsien Chang Chow[/caption] The team Harvard A (Danny DeBois, Archie Hall) won the Open Final as Opening Government on the motion "This house would rather save the life of a single child, over extending the life of 5 ...

Once again the anglophone World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) took place during the turn of the year. This year's location was Mexico City. The tournament started the 27.12.17 and ended the 04.01.18. After nine preliminary rounds the teams breaking to the outrounds were announced on New Year's Eve. At the WUDC, teams participate classified as one of three language categories: EPL (English as a Proficient Language), ESL (English as a Second Language) and EFL (English as a Foreign Language). EPL-classified teams can only participate in the Open Break, ESL-teams depending on their ranking either in the Open Break oder the ...

Breaking 9th seed, Darion Hotan and Sam van Elk from Kings College London proceed to win the 2017 Oxford Intervarsity. The tournament's Chief Adjudicators were Evan Lynyak, Sella Nevo, Sophie Large, Teck Wei Tan, and Joshua Bailey. The tab team, SUULUU Candles, was led by Roxana Legezynska and included Katherine Dunbar, Steven Roy, Alex Murray, Joseph Sisson, and Jiwoo Won. [caption id="attachment_33048" align="alignright" width="400"] In Closing Opposition, BPP A ran an economics extension in the Final. photo credit: Justin Kirk[/caption] Debating as KCL A, Darion and Sam proposed that “Assuming it could be done peacefully, this House would replace all existing governments ...

The European Universities Debate Championship 2017, taking place in Tallinn, have come to an end. On the day of the finals both the last four teams of the Open track and the English as a Second Language (ESL) track came together at the Nordea Concert hall for the two finals. ...

Ido Kotler and Monica Forman from Tel Aviv won the Berlin IV 2017, speaking in Closing Opposition to the motion "This House would prefer a world where there is only one religion". [caption id="attachment_32206" align="alignright" width="400"] Chief Adjudicators van Beusekom, Irvine, Smith, Har-Oz, Large, Winners Kotler and Forman - © Jonas Huggins[/caption] As team #Reichs_tag_a_friend they beat Munich A (Melda Eren, Wladi Jachtchenko) in Opening Government,  Debating – not even once (Milla Huuskonen - Helsinki, Leo Yung - London) in Opening Opposition and Oxford A (Tommy Peto, Raffy Marshall) in Closing Government. The final was judged by Sivan Avitan in the chair, Namita Gupta, ...

[caption id="attachment_32163" align="alignright" width="400"] The GUU delegation at the Durham Open with winners Bethany Garry (standing) and Owen Mooney (green shirt) - © GUU[/caption] The Durham Open 2017 was won by GUU A (Bethany Garry and Owen Mooney) in Opening Opposition on an open motion. They debated against Consider Phlebas (Sam van Elk, Cambridge and Joe Roussos, LSE) in Opening Government, Oxford RJ (Jure Hederih and Raffy Marshall) in Closing Government and Cambridge E (Camilo Ruiz and Matt Hankin) in Closing Opposition. The final was judged by Kez Exley (C) Dee Courtney, Aislin Flynn, Rory Flynn and Chris Paschali Best speaker of the tournament was ...

[caption id="attachment_32158" align="alignright" width="400"] Winners Katherine Dunbar (left) and Etsuko Lim (right) during prep time - © TCD Hist/Phil[/caption] The Trinity Open 2017 was won by Cambridge B (Etsuko Lim & Katherine Dunbar) in Closing Government. They debated against Oxford Tecks and Sophie (Teck Wei Tan & Sophie Large) in Opening Government,  Upgrading from Aodhan (Adam Stairs & Clíodhna Ní Chéileachair, UCD Law) in Opening Opposition and Edinburgh A (Tim Squirrel & Nish Hegde) in Closing Opposition on the motion "You are an author who has just been granted a power such that any book you write would be taken as gospel by all who read it. ...

[caption id="attachment_31902" align="alignright" width="400"] Enting Lee speaks as Leader Opposition in the final round of the 2017 HWS Round Robin (c) Howard and William Smith Colleges[/caption] The HWS Round Robin has claimed yet another weekend of the lives of some of the best debaters in the world. In a tradition that began at the 2016 HWS Round Robin, two judging panels watched each round and delivered oral adjudications independently, with the aggregate number of points & speaker points used to determine the break (tab here). After a struggle for team spots, which can be achieved either through winning a prestigious named tournament or ...

[caption id="attachment_31345" align="alignright" width="163"] Winners of the Manchester IV Open Final 2017: Owen Mooney (left), Eileen De Souza (right) - © Craig McDonald[/caption] Congratulations to the three winning teams of this year’s Manchester IV! The Open Final was won by GUU Clubs of alcohol and depravity (Owen Mooney and Eileen De Souza) in Closing Government. They defeated Oxford HC (Jure Hederih and Louis Collier) in Opening Government, UCL Janeway (Martin Devenney and Leo Yung) in Opening Opposition, and Edinburgh Nevertheless, She Persisted (Ethan Silver and Nishith Hedge) in Closing Opposition on the motion “This house believes that militaries in new democracies should ...

After nine preliminary rounds, two days of elimination rounds and three finals, the winners of this years WUDC have been determined. [caption id="attachment_30874" align="alignright" width="302"] EFL Champions 2017: Belgrade C ©DutchWUDC[/caption] In the EFL Final, Belgrade C (Miloš Marjanović, Teodora Rešetar) took the win via unanimous decision against BINUS A (Stella Emada Bestio, Willem Chua) in Opening Government, SKT A (Konrad Gütschow, Philipp Schirmer) in Opening Opposition and SUFE B (Jinting Liu, Miranda Shen Yan) in Closing Government on the motion "THBT the European left should promote a hard left agenda, including the nationalisation of major industry, very high tax rates on the ...

[caption id="attachment_29710" align="alignright" width="344"] View over Warsaw - © Lennart Lokstein[/caption] The European Universities Debating Championship is over. Winner of the ESL-final is Tel Aviv A (Dan Lahav, Ayal Hayut-man) from Closing Government, thus becoming ESL-Champions, whereas the teams Tel Aviv C (Tom Manor, Noam Dahan) from Opening Government, Leiden D (Lisa Schallenberg, Simon Martina-Perez) from Opening Opposition and Leiden A (Floris Holstege, Emma Lucas) from Closing Opposition become vice ESL-Champions. The final's motion was "This house believes that western states should support breakaway regions in former Sovjet states (e.g. East Ukraine l South Ossetia) joining the Russian federation conditional on holding free and ...