SMU students have done Singapore proud!

In a rare feat, a team of mooters from SMU School of Law has defended its championship title at the annual Price Media Law Moot Competition (Price Moot), and is the first university to win the Price Moot thrice!  This is also the fourth time SMU has reached the final of the Price Moot – yet another record in the competition.

Organised by Oxford University, the Price Moot is now considered one of the seven ‘grand slam’ moots as it attracts around a hundred teams annually (92 this year) and is the largest moot on human rights, freedom of expression in particular.  The Moot, which is celebrating its 10^th edition this year, was held in Oxford, United Kingdom, from 3 to 7 April 2017.

The moot team, comprising third-year undergraduates Chia Chen Wei, Lyndon Choo, Tracy Gani and Kara Quek, and third year Juris Doctor students Jacintha Gopal and Saw Teng Sheng, won all seven matches en route to the championship.  Besides clinching the championship title, Teng Sheng was named Best Oralist in the championship final (a first for SMU in this moot) and also Best Oralist of the tournament (another first for SMU in this moot).  Chen Wei was also named second runner-up for Best Oralist of the tournament.

(L-R) Chen Wei, Jacintha, Teng Sheng, Kara, Tracy and Lyndon, with one of the team's coaches Sui Yi Siong (centre).]

The moot problem this year was mainly about the freedom of expression; specifically, whether a political blogger had incited violence in another state, and whether the social intermediary which hosted her content could be sanctioned.

Apart from Oxford University, which SMU was up against in the final round, some of the other opponents the team met included University of Technology Sydney, the University of the Philippines and the University of Sao Paulo.  The team was judged by a number of Queen’s Counsel at various points in the competition, and the final comprising seven leading practitioners was presided by Nicolas Bratza, the former President of the European Court of Human Rights.

With this latest achievement, SMU has reached 39 international moot finals in total, winning 20.  So far in this moot season, SMU has reached four international moot championships with at least seven more international competitions to go.

This result also means that we have become the second university in the history of international moots to successfully defend a ‘grand slam’ moot title – we were the first to do so when we won back-to-back International Criminal Court titles in 2015 and 2016.

As per previous moots, there was a strong cast of alumni and law faculty members behind the team, who served as joint coaches and judges of practice sessions.  The School is also grateful to WongPartnership for their support since 2015.

“Indeed, doing well in international moots is more than just a university endeavour – I would say it is a national one, as part of nation-building.  If we as a country want to be serious about being a world-class dispute resolution hub, we must continue to invest wisely in our students and coaches to match that ambition,” said Assistant Professor Chen Siyuan, who heads the International Moots Programme at the SMU School of Law.

[Featured photo (L-R): Lyndon, Kara, Chen Wei, Teng Sheng, Tracy and Jacintha, with one of the team's coaches Sui Yi Siong (centre).]

Also read coverage published in The Straits Times on 14 April 2017.