A team of law students from Iloilo’s University of San Agustin has been declared champion of the 2026 Monroe E. Price Media Law Moot Court Competition, edging Canada’s Osgoode Hall Law School in a final argued at the University of Oxford.
The result, posted by the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, which administers the competition, named the University of San Agustin the winner and Osgoode Hall the runner-up. Competing under the university’s Bulahan Price Team banner, the group reached the top of a field drawn from law schools across dozens of countries.
Arguing for San Agustin were team captain and oralist Marco Giorgione Dava and fellow oralist Gie Ann Marie Aloro, backed by researchers Kenverly Kirch Duran and Zynnie Zaragosa. The team was coached by Atty. Anfred Panes.
Dava collected personal honors of his own along the way. He finished 10th among the oralists in the preliminary stage of the Oxford rounds, and earlier in the season had ranked fifth-best oralist during the Asia-Pacific regional competition.
The path to Oxford narrowed sharply before the international stage even began. Eighty-five teams took part in six regional rounds worldwide, and only 30 earned invitations to argue in England. The international rounds ran through the week of April 13 to 17, 2026, with the championship match held at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights at Oxford.
San Agustin’s opponents over the course of the competition came from a roster of well-known institutions, among them Oxford, the University of Chicago, the University of Vienna, Singapore Management University, NALSAR University of Law, and the University of the Philippines.
The moot centers on international law governing freedom of expression and the media, an area the competition has spotlighted since its founding, and it carries the name of the late Professor Monroe E. Price, who built the Oxford program from which the contest grew.
Recognition followed the team home. In the Philippine House of Representatives, lawmakers filed House Resolution No. 1030 to congratulate the University of San Agustin College of Law for capturing the world title at this year’s competition.
