Mooting News & Events
 

UPCOMING EVENTS: Watch out for emails and information about events which will be taking place over the first few weeks of term.

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Recent News & Events
 

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On Wednesday 11th June 2008, the final of this year's internal competition was held at Exeter Guildhall. The final was judged by Professor Tettenborn, Bracton Professor of Law, Judge Griggs, designated civil judge for Devon and Mr Robin Tolson QC, leader of the western circuit. The Lord Mayor of Exeter also attended the event. The four finalists Katherine Afford, Stephen Williams, Jennifer Cassidy and Tom Webb were initially among over 100 students who took part in the first round of the internal competition. To have progressed to the final stage was a fantastic achievement and demonstrates the extent of their mooting abilities.

The traditional contract themed moot problem, written by Professor Tettenborn was tackled by the finalists during the hour long moot with plenty of judicial intervention from the judges! After the judges had taken some time to deliberate, the winner was announced. Tom Webb was awarded 1st place and the Western Circuit Mooting Competition Cup with Jennifer Cassidy following closely in 2nd Place. Stephen Williams and Katherine Afford came 3rd and 4th respectively. Congratulations to all the finalists for their fantastic achievement and contribution to the mooting at Exeter. The Final of the competition was very kindly sponsored by LexisNexis Butterworths and the Devon and Somerset Law Society. Many thanks to the judges who took the time to come along and judge the final.

The quarterfinals took place on 25th April 2008. The semi-finals took place on 7th May 2008. Congratulations to Tom Webb, Stephen Williams, Katherine Afford and Jennifer Cassidy this year’s finalists.

-     Bracton Law Society Committee elections 2008

The results of the elections were announced on the 3rd March 2008. Congratulations to the new Master and Mistress of the Moots, Kelly Rossiter and Liv Rigden.

-     Jessup 2008

The 2008 Jessup team travelled to London to take part in the competition. More information will follow soon!

-     European Moot Court Competition 2008

The Exeter team travelled to Valencia to take part in the regional finals of the competition. Unfortunately they didn’t make it to the finals, but the team had fun nonetheless. The comments below are from some of the team members.

Thank you to Dr Amandine Garde for all the help she gave the team.

Aloïs Charpenet: “The moot involved a lot of work and preparation, as well as close teamwork. This was very beneficial in many ways. Researching the problem gave us the opportunity to learn about areas of EU law that we would otherwise never have looked at, such as public procurement. It also developed and sharpened our research skills, giving us invaluable practical experience of life as a lawyer. Having got through to the regional finals of the competition, we were lucky enough to travel to sunny Spain where despite the intense schedule we enjoyed the food and exploring the city of Valencia. We also enjoyed meeting teams from all over Europe and seeing different mooting styles. Although the competition was quite scary, it was an excellent experience.”

Victoria Keenan: “Being a member of the ELMC team has been a invaluable experience, both in terms of discovering new areas of European law which we might not have learnt about otherwise, and working as a team. It has been a fantastic way to put into practice all the legal, research and analytical skills that we have learnt so far.”

-     DM Harish International Moot Court Competition 2008

On Wednesday 6th February 2008, the three Jens made their way to Heathrow airport to embark on their Journey to Mumbai. We arrived the following morning completely exhausted, but excited to be in the sunshine and off the plane. Despite having brought with us the coldest weather Mumbai has ever seen, it was far warmer than it had been in the UK. Having recovered somewhat from the flight we were met by the team from King’s College London and had a walk around the bustling streets, followed by a very welcome meal!

On Friday we spent the day at the Government Law College for the inaugural ceremonies and registration, as well as Jeni Bird’s dreaded researcher’s test. After dinner we exchanged memorials with the other teams. Despite being drawn against Cambridge and the Law Society of Ireland, we worked on the memorials until 4am, determined not to give up without at least trying! Saturday was an exhausting day, with a lot of time spent waiting around and the rest either mooting or preparing moots. Having to argue for both the applicant and respondent was mentally draining and by dinner we were glad the day was over! On Sunday we overslept, our tiredness and jetlag catching up with us. We managed to squeeze in some shopping before going to watch the Final. The standard of mooting was exceptional and it was really interesting to watch. We were pretty happy to come 12th out of 26 teams, with Jen Betterton in 14th place and Jen Cassidy in 18th place out of the 52 mooters.

Despite the gruelling schedule and the fact that we had less than two hours to go shopping over the whole weekend, we had an amazing time. We met some incredible people and it was a really good experience. We’d like to thank the Government Law College and the Moot Court Association for all their hospitality and hard work.

-     Weekly Law Reports - 31/01/2008

Jen and Jen travelled to London for the quarterfinal moot in the Weekly Law Reports National Mooting Competition. It was a complex moot on the validity of Secret Trusts and unfortunately the two Jens lost out to City University by one point, but it was a good experience and enjoyed by all four mooters.

-     Western Circuit Mooting Competition 2nd Round

The second round of the internal mooting competition took place on Wednesday the 30th January. The moots were judged by Exeter Law graduate Simon Goldstein who is now studying the BVC in London. The problem dealt with various aspects of murder and attempted murder. The standard of mooting was very high and it took the judge nearly an hour to make his decision about the scores. Well done to everyone who took part. We hope that everyone will continue to be involved in mooting.

The Jessup team completed a mock moot in front of barristers and a lecturer as well as a few spectators.

-     European Law Moot Court Competition - 18/01/08

The team of four students from Exeter, Aloïs Charpenet, Laura Evans, Julia Horbach and Victoria Keenan, who entered the European Law Moot Court Competition have made it through the initial round of the competition, for which they had to produce written pleadings. The team will be travelling to Valencia for the oral rounds of the competition. The team have received a lot of support from Dr Amandine Garde.

-     West of England Mooting Competition 2007/8

On Thursday 17th January (a change to the scheduled moot on Wednesday 16th) Exeter hosted one of the first round moots against Southampton Solent. Representing Exeter were Katherine Afford and Frances Young, whilst Matthew Jope and Christian Martin mooted on behalf of Southampton. Unfortunately for Exeter, Southampton won, however the scores were very close and the standard of mooting very high. The moot was presided over by Mr Andrew Eaton-Hart from Walnut House Chambers who gave an interesting judgment on the disputed area of law that dealt with the question of whether the traditional postal rule should apply to SMS messages.

Jenni and Jenny made their way to the Tremough campus, without getting lost (just thinking they were!) in order to introduce mooting to the law students in Cornwall. The visit started with an introductory talk outlining mooting and the opportunities available in Exeter. Following an explanation of how mooting works the two Jens gave a demonstration moot, with help from two Cornwall students who bravely volunteered to give it a go. After some tough judicial intervention from the judges, Jenny and Jenni answered questions from the students. Hopefully the visit was useful and will have encouraged the Tremough students to get involved with mooting in the future.

If anyone wants to download the mooting preparation booklet that was handed out, it can be found in the Helpful Handouts section.

-     Western Circuit Mooting Competition            (week 9)

The first round of our internal competition took place in week 9. Well done to everyone who took part. It was great to see so many people taking part and we hope that everyone enjoyed it! Thank you to Ali Blackburn, Aloïs Charpenet, Laura Evans and Sam Carroll for giving up their time to judge. Thanks also to Julia Horbach for clerking and helping with the books!

-     OUP National Mooting Competition            28th November 2007

The first round moot of the OUP National Mooting Competition took place in Exeter on Wednesday 28^th November 2007, with His Honour Judge Jeremy Griggs presiding as judge. It was an interesting moot, but unfortunately the Exeter mooters lost out.

-     Workshops   (round 2!)

The second round of workshops took place during week 7. Thanks again to our coaches for volunteering their time. We hope that everyone who took part found them useful and will enter the internal competition.

-     Ashfords Mooting Competition 2007

The second annual Ashfords Mooting Competition between Plymouth and Exeter took place on 10^th November 2007. We would like to thank Ashfords for agreeing to sponsor the day once again. This year the competition was open to double the number of students, 24 students from Exeter and 14 students from Plymouth. The judges were experienced student mooters representing the two universities. Peter Knibbs and Martin Banwell were there on behalf of Plymouth alongside Jenni Cassidy and Jenny Betterton from Exeter. Participants and judges had the opportunity to meet each other and talk over lunch at Cafe Ritazza and the feedback that we got from mooters was very positive.

A big thank you all the students from Plymouth, as well as Peter and Martin, for travelling all the way up to Exeter and to all the mooters for putting so much effort into preparing their moots. Thank you to Natalie Bray and Elena O'Leary for clerking during the moots. Well done to everyone who took part. The standard of mooting was exceptionally high and the judges had an incredibly difficult time trying to distinguish the scores. We were impressed by the enthusiasm and ability shown by the participants and hope that everyone will continue to get involved in mooting.

Congratulations to Sarah Walker and Kunal Solanky from Exeter who came joint third, Luke Fisher from Plymouth who came second and Lara Moore from Exeter who was in first place. Have a look at the Photos page to see pictures from the day.

We have really enjoyed judging the moots and organising the event over the past two years and hope that it will continue to be a success in the future.

-     Workshops

The first round of workshops have already taken place this term. Thanks to everyone who came along and to our coaches for volunteering their time. We hope everyone found them useful, please let us know what you thought! The next set will be happening soon…

-     Demo Moot

On 12^th October four of our experienced mooters took part in the Demo Moot, with Professor Tettenborn sitting as judge. If you would like to view the problem that was mooted it is available in the ‘helpful handouts’ section of the website or in the back of the Mooting preparation booklets which are in the Mooting pigeonhole in Amory.

-     Mooting talk

The first mooting event of the new term was held on 9^th October 2007! A basic introduction to mooting and explanation of the ways to get involved.

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-     Grand Final 2007

The Grand Final of the Western Circuit Mooting Competition was held on the 14^th June 2007 at Exeter Guildhall. The event was very kindly sponsored by LexisNexis Butterworths and the Devon and Exeter Law Society.

This year the final was judged by Professor Tettenborn, District Judge Wainwright and Martin Edmunds QC. The Lord Mayor and the Vice-President of the Devon and Exeter Law Society also attended the event. Following the Moot the spectators joined the judges and finalists for a glass of Champagne before the celebratory dinner at St Olave’s hotel.

The standard of mooting was incredibly high from all four finalists, James Davies, Laura Evans, Sam Carroll and Simon Goldstein. It was a great opportunity to see some of Exeter’s best Mooters in action. Congratulations to the winner Laura Evans and runner-up Simon Goldstein and a massive thank you to our sponsors, LexisNexis Butterworths and the Devon and Exeter Law Society, without whom the event would not have been possible.

-     Jessup 2007

This year we once again entered a team into the prestigious Jessup International Law Moot Competition. The team travelled to London in order to take part in the first round of the competition. They did exceptionally well with their memorial coming second overall. The following was written by Jenny Betterton, one of the Jessup mooters.

“The Jessup Moot is based on International Law. It is the most prestigious mooting competition in the world. The Compromis (brief) is often based on recent issues in the international domain such as Turkey’s accession to the European Union. There are 4 mooters and there are people that can just research. Mooting is in a very different style to domestic English mooting and the case is based as if it were before the ICJ. The mooting tends to be more of a discussion and you can find yourself just arguing the concept of sovereignty for ten minutes. This year our memorial (written arguments) came second. The competition was also hosted by Freshfields and the competition and dinner was held in their rather glamorous offices. The team in February goes to London for two days to moot against the other universities. The English teams that go through then get to go and moot in Washington. It is invaluable experience and when it comes together to the end and the team is in London all the hard work is worth it!”

-     DM Harish International Moot Court Competition 2007

Wednesday 7^th February 2007 saw four excited students from Exeter flying to India to take part in the DM Harish International Moot Court Competition at the Government Law College, Mumbai. After an 11 hour flight we were met at the airport and driven through the busy roads of Mumbai. Once we’d registered and settled in we had the rest of the day to start exploring the city. We were amazed by the vibrant colours and rich aromas (some pleasant and some less so!) that filled the bustling streets. Everywhere we went there was something new happening and we nearly tripped over a snake charmer!

The following morning we were up and ready to leave the hotel at 8am. After several months of researching and preparing our two 40 page memorials we were looking forward to the start of the mooting. We met students from all over the world, including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Mauritius, Spain and India. The competition was tiring and there were a number of events and functions that we had to attend, but it was fascinating to see so many different styles of mooting and we had a lot of fun meeting new people and seeing some sights. Overall we were only a few marks off the semi-finals, which was a fantastic result out of 28 teams.

-     Ashfords Mooting Competition 2006

On 28^th October 2006 students from the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth took part in a friendly Mooting competition, kindly sponsored by Ashfords solicitors. Among the spectators were students from both universities who came along to learn a bit more about mooting and support those taking part. Experienced student mooters from the two universities acted as judges, providing a unique opportunity to view mooting from a different perspective. The day was a great success, providing an excellent opportunity to meet Law students from Plymouth and for people to see different styles of mooting. The standard was very high and everyone who took part should be very proud of themselves! Exeter did particularly well with Laura Evans in first place and Gary MacLachlan in third.

Page Last Updated:

25/07/2008