As you may have already known, my moot team recently came back from Adelaide after competing in the South East Asia Pacific round of the ELSA WTO Moot. Since last November we have been working extremely hard on our submissions. Many late nights were spent in the library, many bad dinners were eaten, some of the team even welcomed in the new year from the fifth floor of the law building. Even after our writtens were handed in we continued to practice our oral submissions and refine our arguments.
At Adelaide we enjoyed the Oaks Plaza in Glen Elg and all its beautiful facilities, in between further work on our oral submissions - some hastily printed out at the last moment. Ultimately though we narrowly missed out on moving through to the next round. We came away with best written submissions for the complainant, respondent and overall. We also went into the Grand Final ranked first, but in the end the team from Wellington went away with the victory.
So why work for over three months straight, holed up in the library with three other self-confessed ‘law nerdlings’ on very technical, non-sexy WTO trade law - apart from a uni-paid for trip to beautiful Glen Elg?
Learning the Law
Well, it teaches you the law. After completing the ELSA WTO Moot my knowledge of WTO trade law has exponentially improved. Not only the narrow area of telecommunication covered by the problem, but even a more general understanding of WTO dispute settlement and overarching concepts such as national treatment, market access and ‘likeness’. While some of the team never want to see a WTO dispute again, I’m excited at what I’ll be able to do with this knowledge in the future.
Learning Skills
Taking part in the Moot will hone your writing, presentation and administration skills. I learnt quite a bit about working in a team, cutting down on a word count, ‘dinner diplomacy’, cutting out excess words, oral presentation, cutting words, and general research/organisational skills. Not to mention putting all this in the context of an extremely tight deadline!
Experiencing the Law
Apart from straight-up learning, the Moot also made me feel a little bit of what it would be like to actually be working in WTO law. Having to know the facts intimately, and how the legal issues would play out, really made me feel personally invested in how things were going. Debating with the team as we disagreed about particular arguments we were running added to this realism.
Meeting the Team
One of the absolute best things about doing the Moot for me was spending time with ‘Odawg’, ‘Jrae’ and ‘Email Elimy’. We had an insane time preparing our submissions and an awesome time in Adelaide. I don’t know if I’d see the Moot as quite as worth it as I do now if it wasn’t for the great atmosphere the team had. Not to mention getting to know our great coaches Andrew and Tania, who went far beyond the call of duty in helping us out.
Meeting People
Finally, the Moot gave me an awesome opportunity to meet some really interesting people. Eminent trade lawyers, academic experts, barristers and WTO appellate body staff - I was amazed at the range of people I met, all of whom were willing and open to share how they got to where they were.
So all in all I would highly recommend you take part in the WTO Moot if you get the opportunity. Especially if you know some crazy cats that you’ll be doing it with! Even if you don’t get to Geneva you’ll have a smashing time and if worse comes to worse, as much as I hate the phrase, “it does look good on your resume”. So maybe, Jessup here I come?
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From lawyers of impeccable professional integrity to those with whom we might be embarrassed to share a profession, all reiterate that innocence or guilt is of no real concern in their daily work. In their trial stories, they usually say nothing at all about the subject. On the general issue, they say it is far easier to defend the guilty because the defense lawyer always wins. If the defendant is acquitted, the lawyer has worked a minor miracle; if convicted, the correct result was reached. Most defense lawyers have reached a state of reasonable doubt in their own minds by the time of trial. Those rare trials of a defendant whom the lawyer truly believes to be innocent, as compared to one about whom she has a reasonable doubt, are grueling and frightening experiences, in which the usual will to win is elevated to a desperate desire to succeed.
