The Chicago Debate Society

2009 Langfan Constitutional Debate Final

2009-02-18T15:04:00.004-06:00

The final round of the 2009 Langfan Constitutional Debate took place last Thursday, February 11th in the Law School Courtroom. Professor Rosalind Dixon delivered the keynote speech, elucidating on the different ways foreign law can be used in US Federal Courts. The round was well attended with over 50 people showing up to watch as Adwait Parker and Petey Gil-Montllor squared off against Deepa Ramakrishnan and Chris Catterton. Paker and Gil-Montllor won over the panel of judges affirming the resolution "it is legitimate for US Federal Courts to consider foreign law and standards when interpreting the Constitution," becoming the 2009 Langfan Champions.

Prelims Results

2009-01-17T14:30:00.003-06:00

The preliminary rounds have ended, and the 2009 Langfan finalsts will be Adwait Parker & Petey Gil-Montllor and Deepa Ramakrishnan & Chris Catterton. Congratulations to both finalist teams and to all the teams that competed. The judges were uniformly impressed with the quality of the speakers drawn to this year's competition. We are working with the finalists as well as a keynote speaker to schedule the final round. It will be held in the Law School Courtroom in early February. An announcement by e-mail will be sent to all competitors, and the event will be widely advertised on campus. As promised, here is a photo from lunch before breaks were announced.

Saturday morning debate

2009-01-17T11:27:00.005-06:00

It's a cold Saturday morning in Chicago today. The board and various members of the team have assembled in Harper Memorial Library to host the 2009 Langfan Constitutional Debate prelims. There have been some fantastic rounds so far, and we're looking forward to seeing which teams will be this year's finalists. Last year Harry Murphy '11 and Noah Blaser '11 were the Langfan champions, winning in the final round on a 3-0 decision. The runners-up were Patrick Diehl '11 and Greg Nance '11. Included in this post are a couple of photos from the final round last year. More photos from today's preliminary rounds to come later today.

Ben and Andy on Fox

2009-01-07T08:14:00.002-06:00

This video has been awhile in the coming. It dates back from the vice-presidential debates in October. Ben and Andy gave a recap of the debate on the morning news the day after the CDS debate-watching party at my house. The debate turned out to be one of the most watched television events ever with 69.9 million viewers in the United States.

AU

2008-11-19T20:27:00.002-06:00

Congratulations to Chris Catterton for his first novice speaker award - 6th speaker!

Tufts Pro-Ams

2008-11-19T20:17:00.006-06:00

Congratulations to Andy Hogue (Pro) and Clara Spera (Am) for going 4-1 and breaking to octos at the Tufts Pro-Ams. Despite the loss in outrounds, Andy and Clara had a great run, and even better, had fun doing it.

Brownie points: Caption anyone?

Back to the UK

2008-11-19T20:14:00.004-06:00

LONDON, England - CDS's own Christophe "Death From Afar" Lamy continued his unprecedented run of form last week, breaking to semifinals at the Imperial College IV and defeating CDS alum Woon Lee to make his 4th straight final. In defending Jerusalem's sacred right to exist free of UN oppression, Lamy won the judges over with an impassioned defence of both religious people and well-defined property rights.In the final, Lamy and partner Ross Allen brought the debate back to earth after an interminable philosophy lesson by Cambridge A - unfortunately winning the crowd over was insufficient on the day and the team lost out narrowly to Cambridge. Lamy nonetheless remains the only debater in the UK to have gotten to the final round of every tournament entered, and with the ESU Mace, Worlds and European Championships all upcoming - the 2008/09 season looks to be extremely promising for CDS-UK.

News from Afar (And it just keeps coming)

2008-10-27T19:54:00.007-05:00

BRISTOL, UK - Christophe Lamy maintained his 100% record in the UK British Parliamentary debate, breaking to the finals for the third successive tournament this past weekend at the Bristol IV.

Coming off victories at University College of London President's Cup and a close runner-up position at the School of Oriental and African Studies IV, Lamy (a BP novice) continued his streak by becoming the only debater in the UK to have appeared in all three finals of the 08/09 debate tournament season thus far.

Lamy's record-setting feat capped a strong weekend for LSE, which featured three teams breaking to semifinals; the top team on tab and the top speaker on tab as well - all of which keep LSE firmly at the top of the British Universities league table. Our very own CDS alumni, Woon Lee, was one of the LSE semifinalists.

Unfortunately, Lamy's team lost out in the final to Cambridge A, however his team once again won the audience over with an explosive mix of analysis and wit. In opposing the motion that "This House Would Force Mothers and Fathers to Take Equal Maternity and Paternity Leave," Lamy brought the house down with an unexpected comparison of biological maternal bonds to Stockholm Syndrome, in addition to his now-trademark lambasting of the proposal as unacceptably heterosexist."

With consecutive upcoming tournaments at Imperial College, Oxford, and Cambridge quickly gearing the national circuit towards Worlds in December, the Chicago Debate Society looks set to continue its overseas success in the coming weeks.

Novice In-House

2008-10-23T00:19:00.004-05:00

After barely three weeks of debating, the novices were thrown into the competitive (but friendly) setting of the "Novice In-House."

The Top 5 Speakers were:

1. Alex Zhao

2. Chris Catterton

3. Daniel Strauss

4. Jay Garlapati

5. Deepa Ramakrishnan

And... The final round was between UChicago Carter (Chris Catterton and Deepa Ramakrishnan) vs UChicago Stevenson (Clara Spera and Daniel Strauss). In one of the best novice in-house rounds of years, UChicago Carter defeated UChicago Stevenson.

Battles Abroad Part II

2008-10-19T20:36:00.007-05:00

For the second consecutive tournament, CDS's very own expatriate, Christophe Lamy, broke to finals. At SOAS IV (the first intervarsity debate tournament of the year), Christophe and his partner narrowly lost to a ULU (University of London Union) team after some heated arguments among the judges' panel.

Icelandic Debate is Born (aka GW)

2008-10-19T20:13:00.006-05:00

Although a few unfortunate rep-outs and poor decisions were made this past weekend by the APDA elite, GW was a huge success as it marked the official birth of IPDA (Icelandic Parliamentary Debate Association).

More details to come, but note that IPDA favors those who know many languages (preferably french), those who can sweet talk their way out of saying anything substantive, and those who feel at home in steam rooms and saunas.

You know who you are.

Harvard: The Colonial Times Meets Tandii

2008-10-12T20:23:00.004-05:00

Super congratulations go out to Tom and Andy for breaking to Octofinals at the very prestigious Harvard tournament. Even with Andy's all-nighter Thursday evening (thank you Gary Becker), Harvard's extremely large pool (139 teams), and the incompetence of certain philosophy majors (what is debt?), Andy and Tom were still able to thrive and succeed with impressive high speaks and a 4-1 record.

CDS Conquers England: Update From the UK

2008-10-12T18:22:00.008-05:00

LONDON -- Current CDS member Christophe Lamy announced his triumphant arrival on the UK debating circuit on October 11th, emphatically winning the UCL President's Cup with partner and ex-CDS member Woon Lee.

After scraping into the final, Lamy and Lee found themselves having to propose the motion that "This House Would Repeal the Human Rights Act and leave the European Convention on Human Rights." Having absolutely no understanding of this motion, Lamy and Lee were seconds away from proposing the motion with a solitary independent point: that the Human Rights Act was illegitimate as the US had not ratified it, not knowing that the Act in question was actually a British Act, not the UN human rights charter.

In a last-minute manoeuvre, Lamy and lee decided to "wing it," instead proposed abolishing all human rights charters on various grounds, such as its violation of the rights of vegetarians, its discrimination against animals, its contradiction of Hobbesian ideals, and its unfair constraints on material self-actualization through performance art that incorporates murder.

The debate also featured what has been collectively described as the "funniest moment in British debate, ever." In responding to an Oxford A POI that "the European convention on human rights might be based on Christian ideals," Lamy responded with "Yeah well so are the Chronicles of Narnia." The round literally had to be paused for the house to come to order.

After an hour of deliberation, team LSE D succeeded not only in winning the overwhelming popular vote, but also defeated UCL, Oxford A, and Oxford B for the championship, in a final 5-3 judges' decision.

Lamy and Lee now look to continue their winning form at subsequent BP tournaments in the UK, and extend a warm invitation to any CDS members looking to participate at Worlds.

Chicago, and LSE, 4eva!

Pre-Term Part II

2008-09-29T12:48:00.007-05:00

Congratulations to everyone at the Columbia tournament this past weekend. It was an impressive turnout especially considering Andy, Adam, and Tom were stuck in the hells of O'Hare and unfortunately missed first round.

Special congrats to Tom and Andy for narrowly missing breaks at 12th seed and to Julia and Steve (NYU) for being right behind at 13th.

Prospective Novices

2008-09-21T21:27:00.008-05:00

Welcome Prospective Novices to the Chicago Debate Society Blog! We would like to invite you to a few different events:

On Friday, September 26th, we will be having a CDS Open House in the South Lounge of the Reynolds Club from 2-3 pm. President Ben Field and members from our team will be holding an informal meeting, where you can learn some information about what we do and ask any questions you may have.

We will also have a table at the RSO Fair on Friday, October 3nd, so please stop by if you have more questions or would like to meet more of the members. We will be happy to chat with you about debate or anything else you might feel like.

Our first official practice is Sunday, October 5th on the first floor of Cobb. This will focus on you, the novices. We'll have lots of information for you, including an overview, a demo round, and a Q&A section.

We're excited to meet you and hope you decide to join the Chicago Debate Society. Feel free to come to any and all of our events where you'll learn what we do, how we do it, and why you definitely don't want to miss out.

Pre-Term Tournaments: Hopkins and W&M

2008-09-21T21:12:00.007-05:00

As the final days of summer wind down, congratulations to all who competed at John Hopkins and William and Mary.

We've had a solid beginning to the year and plan to have continued competitive success for many tournaments to come.

Special congrats go out to Adam and Ben! Adam and Ben were quarterfinalists this past weekend at William and Mary, with Ben receiving an award for 7th Speaker.

The New Year

2008-09-12T14:31:00.008-05:00

The Chicago Debate Society would like to welcome you, members and interested others, to our new blog. You can find information regarding our team, stories, pictures, tournament results, as well as other random tidbits that may interest you. We also hope to feature live blogging of tournaments once the debate year begins. Bookmark this site and you'll see lots of cool updates.

If you have pictures, anecdotes, or anything else you would like posted, please forward the information to Julia, at jlgreenberg@uchicago.edu.

Comment away and enjoy!