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COVID-19 no obstacle for winners of an international moot
An Australian university has embraced the “new normal” of international mooting, placing third out of a total of 260 teams across the world.
Naomi Neilson
A team of four University of Queensland students (UQ) competed in the first virtual Willem C. Vis International Arbitration Moot and placed equal third, which is the university’s best result in the oral rounds since winning in 2000 and placing second in 2002.
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Academic dean and head of school Professor Patrick Parkinson said the result cemented UQ Law’s reputation as one of the world’s “best law schools for mooting”.
“In the last three years, we have won the Jessup once, reached the quarter-finals the next year and were due to compete in Washington this year,” said Professor Parkinson, adding that UQ has also won the international maritime law moot over two consecutive years.
The Vis moot had to transition into a virtual event in light of COVID-19 restrictions. It was held via videoconferencing platforms, where the team was able to see the opposing team and arbitrators on one screen and could conduct pleadings in a similar manner.
The team, consisting of Carmen Zhu, Elliot Perkins, Johnson Choi and Paivi Adeniyi, had a number of challenges in adjusting and just two weeks to adapt to online mooting.
“The usual difficulty of communicating complex legal ideas to arbitrators of different legal backgrounds was compounded by the technical difficulties,” Ms Adeniyi said.
This included a platform server crash, getting locked out of virtual conference rooms and the audio or video failing without warning. However, the team remained flexible, not letting “anything diminish their chances of success”, according to UQ.
One of the team’s coaches, Emily McClelland, said the team’s dedication was unwavering even when time zones meant competing until the early hours of the morning: “The team persevered through their tiredness and, to the credit of their professionalism, remained focused and enthusiastic. I am so proud of their hard work.”
