The competition is named after Manfred Lachs, a former judge of the International Court of Justice.
It is the oldest student competition in the area of space law, with the first edition of the moot taking place in 1993.
In recent years the moot has been held during the International Astronautical Congress and Colloquium of the IISL.
In addition to national rounds for certain countries, five regional competitions have been held for the Lachs Moot to date—Africa (introduced in 2012), Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America (introduced in 2021), and North America—with the winners of each region proceeding to the world or international finals at a venue that changes every year (depending on where the International Astronautical Congress is held); the world championship round is typically judged by three sitting ICJ judges.
[8][9] For a period of time, the regional and world rounds were held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.