Judge Gratwicke crowns University of Cambridge mooting champions
July 01, 2008
University of Cambridge has won the OUP and BPP National Mooting Competition 2007/2008. The two winning mooters, Heather Emmerson and Michael Lee, received a certificate, trophy, £750 each and a chance to gain experience with BPP Law School’s Pro Bono Centre.
Runners up, Nicholas Howe and Lauren Sales, representing the University of Reading, each received £350 and a certificate.
The final, held yesterday (Monday 30 June) at BPP Law School, Holborn, saw City University London pitted against Birmingham City University and University of Cambridge against University of Reading. His Honour Judge Gratwicke, of Chelmsford Crown Court oversaw proceedings and chose the overall winner and runner up from the two moots.
In his summing up, Judge Gratwicke expressed how astounded he was by the standards before him: “Every year I am staggered by the standard of mooting this competition generates. Mooting is not something that one can do at the drop of a hat. You have to spend time preparing your submissions, carrying out your research, practising your persuasiveness and being prepared to respond to a judge intervention, whatever that intervention may present. I am sure that all eight finalists will have a successful career in law.”
Heather Emmerson, University of Cambridge said: “The OUP/BPP National Mooting Competition has been an incredible journey. Over the past nine months we have had the fantastic opportunity of preparing five challenging moots and taken on excellent opposition. This contest has both honed my mooting skills and fuelled my enthusiasm for advocacy. I was delighted to see our hard work and improved skills pay off in the Final".
Clare Weaver, OUP said: “It's very gratifying to be involved in an initiative which gives students from across the country the opportunity to pit their legal wits against each other. The success of the competition is down to the motivation and enthusiasm of every student involved."
Jonathan Clore, BPP lecturer and host for the evening echoed Judge Gratwicke’s comments: “The standard of mooting seen tonight has been exceptional. To win out of 61 teams from different universities is something that Heather and Michael should be really proud of and I am confident that they both have promising careers in law ahead of them.”
The fictitious mooting problem, written by Gary Watt, was ‘In the Court of Appeal, The new church of Shakespeare v. The Charity Commission for England and Wales’ focussed on the topical issue of The Charities Act 2006, and explored the legal definitions of education and religion and the impact of these definitions when registering an organisation for charitable status for education or religious purposes. Mooters were judged on four criteria; content of legal argument, presentation of legal argument, flexibility in handling interventions and overall impression.
Teams wishing to enter the 2008/2009 mooting competition can register their interest by email at mooting.uk@oup.com
Ends
Notes to editors
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BPP Law School
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Oxford University Press
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Oxford University Press is the UK’s leading publisher of legal textbooks and is a department of the University of Oxford.
Gary Watt
Gary Watt, is a reader in Law at University of Warwick and an author of Equity and Trusts for OUP. He has written all the mooting problems for this competition, which this year have been based on his love of literature.
BPP College of Professional Studies
BPP College of Professional Studies (“BPP College”), which comprises BPP Business School and BPP Law School, is the first private sector, public owned company to be granted degree awarding powers by the Privy Council. BPP College delivers business and law programmes across four campuses, Leeds, London (Holborn and Waterloo) and Manchester and has more than 5,000 students. For more information about BPP College please visit www.bppuc.com