Law School hosts inaugural Liverpool International Law Mooting Competition
From 29 April – 3 May 2024, the Liverpool Law School hosted the inaugural Liverpool International Law Mooting Competition. This new inter-university competition gives law students from the University of Liverpool, Edge Hill University, Liverpool John Moores University, and Liverpool Hope University the opportunity to try international law mooting in a fun, friendly, and supportive atmosphere.
Meghan Hughes (University of Liverpool) and Lex Smith (Edge Hill University) received the awards for best speakers in the preliminary rounds.
On Monday 29 April, participating students attended introductory workshops on international law and mooting advocacy skills, before dividing into teams of two to spend the rest of the week researching the competition problem and preparing their submissions for the oral rounds of the competition. The competition problem, the Case concerning Port Sunlight was a dispute between two fictional states (‘Liverpudlia’ and its neighbour ‘Mancunia’) before the International Court of Justice. The problem raised legal issues concerning environmental protection and necessity as a defence to breach of treaty obligations, and the immunity of state officials from foreign criminal jurisdiction in cases involving torture.
On Friday 3 May, twelve teams participated in the preliminary rounds of the competition. Members of academic staff from participating universities, as well as participants in the University of Liverpool’s Jessup moot teams from previous years, acted as judges. Although there were some nerves, as many students had little or no experience of international law or mooting, the participants rose to the challenge admirably! The judges were very impressed by the level of advocacy of the speakers and the amount of research teams had managed to do in the limited time available, as well as the friendly and supportive spirit with which everyone approached the day.
Speaking of the event, Ruby Bews, 2nd Year, University of Liverpool, shared:
"Last week, I participated in the Liverpool International Law Mooting Competition 2024 with my amazing moot partner Sophie Hampson. Having been on the International Law Society's committee, this competition really appealed to me and, despite having no prior mooting experience, it was such an amazing, insightful, and fun event! Not only did I develop skills such as legal researching, presenting, public speaking, and persuasion, I also made some amazing friends over the 5 days we were given to prepare.”
Students competing in a preliminary round of the competition.
At 4pm the announcement was made of the two highest scoring teams who would advance to the Grand Final, which was held in the School of Law and Social Justice’s events space, in front of an audience of law students, staff, friends and family.
Dr Ben Murphy (University of Liverpool), Victoria Hawley (University of Liverpool graduate and Jessup coach), and Dr Patrick Butchard (Edge Hill University) judging the final round of the competition.
After a brilliantly argued and very entertaining final round, the applicant team, Leow Kuan Yen and Joseph Ramsden (University of Liverpool), narrowly defeated the respondents, Jasmine Jaffree and Fraser Palmer (University of Liverpool) to claim victory. Fraser was awarded the prize for the best speaker in the Final Round and Meghan Hughes (University of Liverpool) and Lex Smith (Edge Hill University) received the awards for best speakers in the preliminary rounds. All students who competed received certificates of participation and the Grand Final was followed by a networking reception to celebrate the students’ achievements.
Winning team, Leow Kuan Yen and Joseph Ramsden (University of Liverpool).
Fraser Palmer (University of Liverpool) received the award for best speaker in the final round.
All involved agreed that the inaugural competition was a great success and we are looking forward to the Liverpool International Law Mooting Competition becoming a regular annual fixture on the universities’ calendar!
Many thanks to the School of Law and Social Justice staff, students, and alumni who made the event possible, as well as Dr Patrick Butchard at Edge Hill University and Dr Sinead Coakley at Liverpool John Moores University.
Lex Smith, 2nd Year, Edge Hill University, said:
"I am so glad that I competed in the inaugural Liverpool International Law Mooting Competition, and so so proud to say that I was awarded highest scoring oralist in the preliminary rounds! Representing Edge Hill at this inter-university competition enabled me to meet my peers at the other local universities”.
If you are a student at one of the four participating universities, information about how to participate in the 2025 competition will be released early next year. If you participated in the 2024 competition and it has whetted your appetite to get involved with more international law mooting, you might be interested in external mooting competitions such as the Jessup and Telders competitions. For UoL students, information about how to apply to be a member of the Law School’s 2025 Jessup team will be released in the coming weeks.
Participating students celebrate their achievements!