Auckland Mooters Reach World Top Ten

30 March 2011

The University of Auckland's mooting team has again put in a first class performance at the world’s largest moot court contest held recently in Washington DC.

The team of Mitchell Cooper, Max Harris, Lewis Mills and Olga Ostrovsky ranked tenth out of the more than 120 teams competing at the international rounds of the Philip C. Jessup International Law mooting competition.

All three oralists on the team were ranked in the top 100: Max Harris 21st, Lewis Mills 61st and Mitchell Cooper 96th. Overall it was one of the best ever results for this country in the Jessup.

This is the fourth year running that Auckland has represented New Zealand, after winning the main national inter-university mooting competition.

Auckland was unbeaten in the four preliminary rounds against Germany, Hong Kong, Kenya, and Uzbekistan. In the advanced rounds it beat Canada, before bowing out to the American team from Columbia University in the octo-final. Columbia went on to compete in the grand final.

The Jessup moot this year concerned complex international law issues, including the legality of targeted killings, the lawfulness of a ban on a fictional religious headscarf, and issues arising out of OECD anti-bribery instruments. In the preliminary rounds the Auckland team had to argue both sides of the argument twice.

The team’s coach was James Little, a junior barrister at Shortland Chambers in Auckland who competed for Auckland at the Jessup in 2008.

Preparation began as long ago as last November once exams had finished. “While it was a long process, it was an incredibly rewarding experience for everyone,” says James.

The competition, starting on 20 March and finishing a week later, was “very intense. Between rounds the team would be occupied with researching underexplored issues that may have come up during a round, or doing extra practices to prepare for the next round.”

Lewis Mills describes the competition as a great experience. "It was great to finally stand up and moot after all the time spent preparing and to compete against teams from all over the world."

The team's success was made possible by the generous support of the New Zealand Law Foundation, Bell Gully and the Faculty of Law. In addition to James Little’s coaching, the team received helpful advice from faculty members Treasa Dunworth, Simon Mount, John Ip, Kris Gledhill and Sir Edmund (Ted) Thomas as well as alumni Anna Crowe, Isaac Hikaka, Ben Prewett and Desley Horton.

Mitchell and Max have completed their law degrees, with Mitchell taking up a position at law firm Webb Henderson in Auckland and Max clerking for the Chief Justice, the Rt Hon Dame Sian Elias. Olga and Lewis are completing their final year at Law School.

ENDS