ALSA competitions review

Posted on August 3, 2018 Under All 0 Comments

By Victoria Hoon

While Council sessions were in full swing, the ALSA competitions were taking place and saw the finalists of the internal competitions run by the various university law societies compete against each other.  As our Competitions Vice-President for 2018, I was a student judge for the Championship Mooting competition.

Photo (from left to right):
Lorenzo McMiken, Christopher Allen and Adam Brett.

Mooting is a mock court case where the case goes to appeal. Teams are assigned to represent either the appellant or the respondent and must present their submissions to the court. This year’s question was quite challenging as it incorporated many different legal principles, such as directors’ fiduciary duties, the equitable laches doctrine and application of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). Ultimately, competitors had to establish whether or not the appellant had standing under s1324 of the Corporations Act and whether or not they were entitled to damages. Despite the complexity of the question, all of the teams did really well in interpreting it and advocating for their client.

Judging at ALSA was an amazing experience: I have competed in mooting competitions myself, so it was really interesting being on the other side of the bench as I could analyse the effectiveness and persuasiveness of the teams’ arguments without bias, and be guided through submissions and innovative arguments. Of course, I also got to ask the questions that I, myself, dread to receive as counsel! As always, it was also extremely rewarding to be exposed to different competitors and their diverse mooting styles.

The cherry on top was that our Championship mooting team broke into the quarterfinals: Lorenzo McMiken, Adam Brett and Christopher Allen competed extremely well and we’re all extremely proud of them, and all of our other ANU representatives! Away from the moot court, the social events were a great way to socialise with all of the other competitors. As Vice-President (Competitions), I enjoyed talking to other universities’ competitors and competitions directors in order to learn more about their how they organise competitions, and to discuss ways to improve opportunities for students.