Three Kent Law students are jetting off to Japan today, on their way to compete in the 12th LAWASIA International Moot Competition 2017.
Law students Maariyah Baig, Cara Hall and Keegan Adsett-Bowrin (pictured en route from two different airports), are accompanied by Kent Law School’s Deputy Director of Mooting Johanne Thompson and will be competing against 16 teams from China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. All teams will be tackling a complex moot problem concerning the termination of a partnership agreement originally drawn up to establish a multimillion dollar jade-mining business in Myanmar. Mooters will draw upon intellectual property law, international trade, commercial law and contract law as they seek to establish: the validity of the termination of the agreement; ownership rights of jade-mining machinery and equipment related to the business; and subsistence and ownership rights of bespoke business software. All parties will be working under the Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration i-Arbitration Rules.
The competition begins in Tokyo on Monday 18 September but memorials for both the claimant and the respondent were submitted by the Kent team in advance of their arrival. A final Award Ceremony to close the competition will be held on Thursday 21 September at the Hotel New Otani.
The annual moot is organised by LAWASIA, an international organisation of lawyers’ associations, individual lawyers, judges and legal academics in the Asia Pacific region; the chair of its Moot Standing Committee is Kent alumnus Raphael Tay, a partner at Chooi & Company in Kualar Lumpur. The competition is organised in conjunction with the LAWASIA International Conference and many of the conference delegates (who include legal advisers, attorneys and judges) act as moot judges.
It is the third year a team from Kent have entered the competition; in 2015, final year Law LLB students Orestis Anastasiades, Elena Savvidou and Lizzie Virgo secured a top ten finish in the 10th LAWASIA International Moot Competition held in Australia; and in 2016, Melanie Lafresiere, Jas Cheema and Tom Bishop competed in the 11th LAWASIA competition held in Sri Lanka.
Kent Law School runs an intensive and wide-ranging mooting programme based in a purpose built moot room in the Wigoder Law Building; in recent years the Law School has entered teams in the: OUP/BPP Moot; English Speaking Union Moot; Jessup International Law Moot; Inner Temple inter-varsity moot; Landmark Chambers moot (property law); inter-varsity medical law moot at Leicester University; Southern Varsity Shield; and inter-varsity Mackay Cup (Canadian Law).