Moot points for ANU law competitors
By Shelly Simonds The Law Faculty will need a new trophy cabinet after an ANU team claimed the most prizes in an international law competition in Washington DC early this month. The ANU Team finished second behind Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico in the Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition which saw 1,500 students from more than 300 law schools in 50 countries participating. "This is the most amazing result, especially since it's been some time since we last participated," Robert McCorquodale, team coach and Associate Dean (Graduate Studies) and Reader in the Faculty of Law, said. "The only thing we didn't win was the cup itself." The ANU team was Douglas Guilfoyle (who won the overall prize for Best Oralist), Ben O'Donnell and Jeff Derix. A fourth team member, Kevin Boreham, was not able to travel to Washington. Law PhD student Chris Ward was assistant team coach. "They went to Washington with much hope but, perhaps, little expectation by many observers," Mr McCorquodale said. "They met some of the toughest teams in the four preliminary rounds: UK (Leeds), South Africa (Witswatersrand), New Zealand (Canterbury) and Bulgaria. In one of the best moots ever, the ANU beat Sydney University, the team which had won the Australian competition. The ANU team then went on to beat teams from India and Singapore in the quarter-final and semi-final before meeting the Mexican team." In addition to winning the Best Oralist prize, the team was named Most Persuasive team, won the Best Memorial and the runners-up awards. Winning the Best Memorial award means the ANU memorials (or legal arguments) will be published. This was a particularly coveted award, Mr McCorquodale said. The prizes were not monetary, although the Most Persuasive Team award included a $2,500 scholarship for one member of the team to attend a US summer school. Australian teams have won the Jessup Competition four times in the past 20 years. The last time an ANU team competed in the international final was in 1981, when it won the event. The competition required law students to analyse a complex legal problem based on a real international conflict, and write a 12,000 word argument for each side and then argue the case before a panel of judges. This year the problem dealt with the extradition of an alleged war criminal from a conflict similar to that in the former Yugoslavia. The judges in the final were Rosalyn Higgins of the International Court of Justice, an Iranian member of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and Prof James Crawford of Cambridge University (ex-Sydney and Adelaide). In past years the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade funded travel for the team to attend the international finals however this year they were unable to do so. The Faculty of Law sought sponsorship for the team, with major donors being The Office of International Law of the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department; Allen, Allen & Hemsley, solicitors; and the Australian Advocacy Institute. Significant donations were made by Canberra law firms and by individuals, with the University matching the funds dollar for dollar.