St Mary's Law and Business Law Students Compete in Criminal Moot

Students studying on the Law and Business Law Programmes at St Mary’s University, Twickenham held their semester one Mooting competition on Tuesday 17^th November 2015. A ‘moot’ is a legal argument held in a mock Court of Appeal before a panel of Judges. It presents an opportunity for students to draw upon the skills they have acquired from their studies and practice their advocacy in a formal yet supportive setting. This semester’s competition was based on a point of criminal law and involved students working in pairs as Leading Counsel and Junior Counsel. Participating students from all three years had two weeks to prepare their arguments based on facts concerning a fictitious homicide at a house party. The appellant team’s role at trial was to convince the Judges to overturn a manslaughter conviction for the failure of the accused to act to prevent a murder. The respondent team’s task was to argue against the appeal, and convince the Judges that the conviction was legally sound. The panel of judges comprised Law lecturers Lloyd Gash, Nabil Rafiq and Jenny Henry as coordinators of the Moot. The Law Programmes’ Administrator Sabina Nardell was also on hand to take photographs and maintain order in the Public Gallery. Lecturer in Law Lloyd Gash said: ‘Mooting is very well regarded by the legal profession and looks great on student CVs and personal profiles. The participating students put a great deal of work into their preparation and the standard of advocacy was very high indeed.’ Congratulations are extended to all who those who took part but particularly Leo Licheri-Hood and Edmund Mawoko who faced some tough competition but were confirmed the overall winners of the Moot. The next Moot will be held in the spring and will be based on Contract Law.