Win, win, win for La Trobe Law Mooters
It’s those La Trobe Law mooters again — La Trobe University has come out tops in a fierce legal mooting contest against some of the State’s best law students.
In separate semi-finals of the 2009 Castan Centre for Human Rights Moot, two La Trobe teams beat the University of Melbourne, to take first and second place. Their home-town win caps a great year for the La Trobe Law students, following success at two highly competitive international moots in January and March.
Now in its third year, the Castan Centre for Human Rights Moot included teams from Monash, Melbourne, Deakin, Victoria and La Trobe universities. Each team had to appeal and respond to human rights issues regulated under the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act.
As winners of this year’s moot, Daniel Diaz, Mark Basile and Aimee Chadzynski, above right, were awarded the Grand-Prize of $3,000 by Clayton Utz, the competition’s sponsor. Runners-up, Harlis Kirimof, Leigh Howard and Ben Mawby, received $1,000.
‘The competitors were given only a couple days to research and gain an understanding of some very complex legislation,’ said Konstantine Ketsetzis, Competition Vice-President of the La Trobe Law Students’ Association.
‘Their task was more difficult as there were very few relevant cases to help them prepare their written and oral arguments. Both teams argued intensely over the human rights issues involved and eventually the two teams from La Trobe emerged victorious.’
International success
Mr Ketsetzis said La Trobe Law mooters have been on a winning streak this year. Their first win was at the prestigious Frankfurt Investment Arbitration Moot in Germany in January, where they beat 27 teams from top universities in the US, Europe and Asia.
The second success was in March. La Trobe came equal third out of 64 teams from the world’s leading law schools, including Harvard, at the Willem C. Vis (Far East) International Arbitration Moot in Hong Kong. La Trobe was also the only Australian Law team to reach the semi-finals.