“May it please the Court”: Major mooting success in 2022
By William Lye OAM KC
Fletcher Moot winners (L to R): Kimberley Ng, William Liu, Vanessa Hynes.
What is mooting?
Mooting is a simulation of the adversarial adjudicative process. It affords Monash Law students the opportunity to display their advocacy skills and application of the law to a mock moot scenario.
This year over 35 students undertaking the unit LAW4805 have participated in 13 national and international mooting competitions with significant success for Monash University.
The results have included:
- 1 x International Moot Winning Team (Ian Fletcher Moot)
- 1 x National Moot Winning Team (AAT Moot)
- 4 x International Moot Semi-Finalist teams
- 2 x National Moot Semi-Finalist teams
- 3 x Quarter-Final Moot teams
- 2 x Winners of Best Memorandum
- 2 x Runners-Up Best Memorandum
As Chief Moot Coach it is my pleasure to provide a highlights reel of these outstanding team performances featuring the legal profession’s up and coming advocates.
Ian Fletcher International Insolvency Moot (Global Champion)
The Fletcher Moot is a global competition focusing on international cross-border insolvency law disputes. It is named after Emeritus Professor Ian Fletcher QC (hc) who was an eminent scholar, internationally recognised for his outstanding achievements in the field of insolvency law.
The competition attracts the best and brightest students from around the globe. 38 teams competed in the Written Round and 16 teams advanced to the Oral Round. The moot problem is a fictional case taking place in a hypothetical jurisdiction that has adopted the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law of Cross-Border Insolvency and the UNCITRAL Model Law on Enterprise Group Insolvency. The competition is run out of INSOL International, London.
The Monash Law team took out the Grand Final against National University of Singapore. They are the first Australian team to win the Fletcher Moot since its inception in 2017.
William Liu won the Best Individual Mooter for both the Semi Final and the Grand Final. Monash University and National University of Singapore were joint runners-up for the Written Submissions.
The bench of the Grand Final round comprised judges including Justice Elsbeth de Vos (Amsterdam District Court), Professor Dr. Georg Kodek (Justice of the Supreme Court of Austria) and Judge Susana Hidvegi (Former Chief Bankruptcy Judge en Superintendencia de Sociedades, Colombia).
This is a significant achievement by the Monash team at the international level.
Administrative Appeals Tribunal Moot (National Champion)
Top Right: Sophia Cookson. Middle Left: Chris Kounelis. Bottom Left: Vishal Vivekananda (Source: AAT)
In its 18th year, this annual Administrative Appeals Tribunal National Mooting Competition for law students attracts 23 teams from around Australia. The AAT mooting competition is a unique national competition as the moot problem is based on the types of cases that come before the AAT. The competition has 5 rounds and runs over 4 months. Each round is judged by sitting members of the AAT. As teams progress further, the moot problems increase in complexity. Students usually have between 1 to 2 weeks to finalise their written submissions.
Monash team Sophia Cookson, Vishal Vivekananda, Christopher Kounelis, and Georgia Nicholson (reserve) won the 18th AAT National Moot competition. It is the only Victorian University to have won this prestigious competition since its inception.
Monash also fielded another team comprised of Jessie Wen, Mahmoud Kashoa, Ella Stonier-Watson, and Tamsin Plotnek (reserved). They reached the quarter finals.
This is a significant achievement by both Monash teams at the national level.
Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot (Ranked 9th)
The Jessup Moot is the world’s largest moot court competition. Each year, it attracts about 700 law schools in 100 countries. The moot problem simulates a fictional dispute between countries before the International Court of Justice.
The Monash team comprising Jeremy Brown, Dev Sharma, Kimberley Ng, William Liu, and James Lyall finished the Australian National rounds ranked 9th out of 18 universities. Jeremy Brown and William Liu were ranked 4th and 5th respectively in the top 12 best oralists. The Monash team was runners-up for the Best Applicant Memorandum.
Nuremberg Moot Court (Semi-Finalist)
The Nuremberg Moot focuses on international criminal law and related human rights law under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The moot is usually held in Nuremberg, the birthplace of modern international criminal law.
This year, 199 students from 45 universities located in 41 countries participated in an online moot competition.
The Monash team comprising Jeremy Brown, Merryn Cagney, William Liu, and Maddison Wynen advanced to the semi-final beating Singapore Management University. Monash was the only Australian team left but lost to the Maastricht University team who were the ultimate champion.
Herbert Smith Freehills Computational Law e-Moot (Semi-Finalist)
The moot focuses on the intersection between law and computer science. It includes issues dealing with ethics and policy questions around data privacy, artificial intelligence, social media, and cryptocurrencies.
16 teams from universities around the world, including Australia, Germany, India, Hong Kong, Singapore and United Kingdom competed.
The Monash team comprising Kimberley Ng, Clare Stambe, Rebecca Muller reached the semi-final but lost to National University of Singapore. Clare Stambe was adjudged best speaker for the semi-final.
UNSW Private Law Moot (Semi-Finalist)
Middle Right: Dev Sharma. Bottom Left: Jeremy Brown and Kimberley Ng.
This is an intervarsity mooting competition featuring competitors from Australia and around the world. The moot focuses specifically on private law and commercial topics, including equity, trusts, corporations law, and contract law.
The Monash team comprising Jeremy Brown, Dev Sharma, William Liu, Kimberley Ng won all preliminary rounds beating Jindal University, the University of Hong Kong, the National University of Singapore, and the University of Oxford. In the quarter-final Monash beat Deakin University. In the semi-final Monash lost to University of Sydney.
ADC-ICC Asia Pacific Commercial Mediation Competition (Ranked 7th)
Top L to R: Donna Ross, William Lye OAM KC, Sandon Hayes. Bottom L to R: Ceres Zhou, Yasmin De Jersey, Wendy Zheng.
This competition run by the Australian Disputes Centre in conjunction with the International Chamber of Commerce focuses on international commercial law and mediation.
It is the world’s largest moot exclusively devoted to international commercial mediation. In its 6th year, this moot attracts teams from leading universities across Australia, Asia, South Pacific, India, the Americas, and Africa.
Students exhibit their negotiation and mediation skills in a mock international commercial dispute, with students assuming the role of client and counsel. The competitors are judged by professional mediators and senior ADR practitioners.
The Monash team comprising Yasmin De Jersey, Wendy Zheng, Ceres Zhou, and Sandon Hayes ranked 7th in this international competition out of 22 teams competing.
Alfred Deakin International Commercial Arbitration Moot (Semi-Finalist and Best Respondent Memorandum)
L to R: Rushil Saluja, Vishrut Pande, Ella White.
In its 6th year, the Alfred Deakin ICA Moot is one of the largest international commercial arbitration mooting competitions in Australia. The competition is based on an International Commercial Arbitration. Universities from Australia and overseas compete over 4 days.
Monash fielded two teams. The team comprising Ella White, Vishrut Pande, and Rushil Saluja reached the semi-final.
The team comprising Campbell Russell, William Ruan, and Tristan Hocking-Brown narrowly lost the quarter-final competition, but they managed to win the Best Respondent Memorandum and were ranked first in the Honourable Mention for Claimant Memorandum.
Ella White was ranked 5th out of 95 oralists, and William Ruan was ranked 7th. Monash teams ranked 5th and 6th out of 38 Universities.
3rd GD Goenka International Virtual Law and Technology Moot Competition 2022 in association with Cyber Law University (India) (Quarter-Finalist)
Top L to R: Molina Asthana, Gagandeep Mirankot, Rushil Saluja. Bottom L to R: Tamsin Plotnek, Verena Youssef, William Lye OAM KC.
This competition was run online out of India with universities from across India and abroad competing. The competition focused on a criminal prosecution case dealing with cyber-crime under the Indian legal system.
Monash was given the opportunity to participate in a moot involving a different legal system which enabled our students to have international exchange and to learn about another country’s approach to advocacy. The Monash team comprising Rushil Saluja, Verena Youssef, and Tamsin Plotnek reached the quarter final and overall, in the top 8 out of 18 teams.
VWL Warren Moot (Semi-Finalist)
Top L to R: Dr Michelle Sharpe, Ella White, Phoebe Gray. Bottom L to R: Ceres Zhou, William Lye OAM KC.
In its 8th year, this moot is open to law students, graduates, and solicitors to test their oral and written advocacy skills before members of the judiciary.
The Monash team comprising Phoebe Gray, Ella White, Ayathma Withanage, and Ceres Zhou reached the semi-final and competed gallantly against lawyers from the Victorian Government Solicitor's Office.
An independent team from Monash comprising students Lauren Trute, Natasha Tian, Suhani Mehra, and Shrestha Gupta were also in the semi-final. They lost to lawyers from HWL Ebsworth.
The Grand Final will be held before former Chief Justice and Monash University Professor the Honourable Marilyn Warren AC KC in the Supreme Court of Victoria.
L to R: Natasha Tian, Suhani Mehra, Lauren Trute, Shrestha Gupta.
Michael Kirby Contract Law Moot (Best Respondent Memorandum)
L to R: Yonit Chait, Michael Tan, Phoebe Gray, Zubra Gungor.
The Annual Kirby Moot was hosted by Victoria Law School in the College of Law and Justice at Victoria University. Teams from interstate competed over 4 days. It is one of the largest moot court competitions in Australia and the only Contract Law Moot.
Monash fielded two teams this year. The Monash team comprising Ayathma Withanage, Malinthi Mallawa, Fionnbarr Russell, and Naomi Boutros El Gawly won the Best Respondent Memorandum.
Baker McKenzie National Women’s Moot (Semi-Finalist)
Left: Georgia Nicholson, Jessie Wen, Yasmin De Jersey. Right: Tamsin Plotnek, Verena Youssef, Joannaa Xiao.
This year’s competition was held in Sydney and dealt with the novel question of whether an artificial intelligent system can be an inventor under the Patents Act 1990.
The Monash team comprising Yasmin De Jersey, Jessie Wen and Georgia Nicholson reached the semi-finals.
Acknowledgements
The continuing successes of Monash Law students in the 2022 national and international competitions are as a result of the support provided by the team at Monash Law. They have provided support and encouragement, and our students have gained invaluable experience from their participation in mooting competitions.
I would like to acknowledge and thank our Dean Professor Bryan Horrigan for his leadership in and support of Monash Law’s mooting program.
On behalf of our law students, I would also like to thank my colleagues for cheering on our students on each occasion when I reported of their success in the competitions - Professors Melissa Castan, Andrew Mitchell, Luke Beck, Jeff Giddings, Marilyn Pittard, Jean Allain, and Stephen Barkoczy; Associate Professors Jacqui Horan, Ross Hyams, and Gerry Nagtzaam; Dr Eric Windholtz and Dr Drossos Stamboulakis.
I am also grateful for the support from Monash’s professional staff led by Faculty Manager Fiona Bygraves. Chris Hincliffe and Andrew Winn have been instrumental in solving many of our students’ technical issues and in particular helping make the technology work either in the Moot Court or Monash Law Chambers. Morag Milne, James Pattison, Arthur Chan, Alice Hannan-Grondman, and Bridget Sadler have assisted in marketing and promoting our students’ mooting triumphs, including Morag Milne for making available the wigs and gowns for our students to use in the Moot Court during class.
It is also through the careful management of the budget by Melissa Fletcher, and the substantial assistance provided to me by Geetika Mehta that the 2022 Mooting Program ran successfully.
Monash students also had the privilege of engaging with the following legal practitioners and academics who gave freely of their time to assist in the practice runs of their moots.
- Anthony Lo Surdo SC, New South Wales Bar
- Matthew Harvey KC, Victorian Bar
- Professor Luke Beck, Monash Law School
- James Samargis, Victorian Bar
- Dr Michelle Sharpe, Victorian Bar
- Donna Ross, Arbitrator and Mediator
- Chong Yu Quaik, Principal, Aitken Partners
- Molina Asthana, Principal, Swarup Asthana Lawyers
- Gagandeep Mirankot, Solicitor, Senia Lawyers
Looking ahead to 2023
Some of the international moots that Monash students are likely to or will compete in 2023 are:
- Jessup Moot
- Vis Moot
- Oxford Intellectual Property Moot
- IBA ICC Moot
- Nuremberg Moot
- Moot Court Children’s Rights Moot, Leiden University
- John H Jackson WTO Moot
- International Maritime Law Arbitration Moot
I am reminded of the words of Sir Winston Churchill:
Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts."
Monash Law students know that they are only as good as their last triumph, and they will continue to heed our motto, Ancora Imparo - “Still I am learning.”