The SOAS Debating Society continues to establish its IV as one of the largest debate competitions in Europe. On October 16th and 17th, 116 teams competed over six preliminary rounds at the School of African an Oriental Studies near King’s Cross in London. For VDCH-debaters, this was a particularly successful weekend.

The final was won by Harish Natarjan and Matilda Wnek (Cambridge H). They triumphed over Cambridge E (Maria English and Jack Watson), Loyola (Emily Ravencroft and Bobby Cashen) and KCL A (Daniel Berman and Jordan Anderson).

The ESL final was won by the German vice-champion and current exchange student Filip Bubenheimer and his team partner Karl Kirchhoff (University of Oslo A) against Leiden A (Senna Matoug and Rogier Baart), Manchester B (with Berlin debater Niels Schroeter and Alexander Rabinovich) and Berlin C (Manuel Adams from Bremen and Julian Schneider from Münster). Curiously, the Oslo-Team only made it to the final, because Berlin A (Dessislava Kirova and Florian Umscheid) had to leave early to catch a flight. Oslo was nominated as the best team of the prelims.

The motions were set by the CA-Team with Douglas Cochran (Cambridge), Catherine Murphy (Trinity College Dublin) and Lucinda David (Stockholm , Co-CA of Manila WUDC 2012), and received positive reactions from participants:

• R1: This House would legalize polygamy.
• R2: This House would ban the media reporting on the details of violent crimes.
• R3: With the benefit of hindsight, this House regrets the awarding of the Nobel Peace prize to Liu Xiabao.
• R4: This House would ban children from receiving any religious instruction.
• R5: This House would make no effort to prevent states without nuclear weapons from acquiring them.
• R6: This House believes that only women should vote on abortion.
• QF: This House believes the state should manipulate history to teach moral lessons.
• SF (ESL): This House would allow political parties to designate certain campaign promises as binding, the breaking of which would trigger an immediate election.
• SF: This House believes Roman Catholics who attend mass are answerable for the political positions of the Church.
• F (ESL): This House believes a jury of one’s peers consists of persons of the same socio-economic, racial, and gender profile.
• GF: This House would remove the international ban on the use of child soldiers.

Compared by size, the SOAS competition now reaches up to the IVs in Oxford Cambridge. However, since only 15 ESL teams were present, the break to the ESL semifinal somewhat “soft”. And because London is home to many (ex-) debaters, a high quality of adjucation could be ensured throughout the entire competition.

After a somewhat chaotic beginning, the competition was started on Saturday morning with a delay of over an hour. Still, on that day five rounds were debated, which surely is the maximum limit on one day. On Sunday, things went more smoothly, despite a transfer of the competition from Vernon Square after the prelims to the SOAS Campus at Russell square at the heart of London.

The SOAS IV 2010 tab can be found online.

jef / glx