The official results are in. Just as we kicked-off the new Academic Year, our students from the School of Law have brought home the championship title of the 11th LawAsia Moot, and for the third time no less!
The triumphant trio - Alexander Lee, Grace Goh and Melissa Ng - were crowned in Colombo, Sri Lanka, after eight matches held in the days leading up to the final round on 15 August 2016, where they were pitted against former Vis champions – West Bengal State University from India.
The judging panel of the finals, which comprised several legal luminaries including the President of the Sri Lankan Court of Appeal and a judge from the High Court of Australia, also awarded Alexander the 1st-runner-up prize for Best Speaker of the tournament. The SMU team also clinched the Best Memorial award.
30 teams had participated in this year’s competition, with the top 15 qualifying for the international rounds. The moot problem they had to tackle was about whether a company could sell its own brand of tea in Malaysia after an agreement to sell Ceylon Tea had expired, raising issues related to intellectual property rights and trademark infringement, international trade, commercial law and contract law.
“Winning the LawAsia Moot for the third time means that we have overtaken Hong Kong University as the university with the best record in this competition, despite making our debut five years after they did. This win brings our overall tally of international moot championship titles to 17, and our total number of final appearances at international moot competitions to 36,” said Assistant Professor Chen Siyuan, who heads the international moot programme at SMU.
It is noteworthy to highlight that the team was coached by Qabir Sandhu of WongPartnership and Nanthini Vijayakumar of TSMP Law Corporation – both of whom graduated from SMU last year. Nanthini was herself a LawAsia mooter when her team emerged champs in 2013.
The competition was organised by LawAsia, an international organisation incepted in 1966 comprising lawyers’ associations, individual lawyers, judges and legal academics that focus on the interests and concerns of the legal profession in the Asia Pacific region.
[Featured photo: (L-R) Melissa, Alexander and Grace after their win at the 11th LawAsia Moot in Colombo, Sri Lanka.]
