A Murdoch Law student, Ms Kaminni Kumar has been appointed to a regular internship at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Kaminni will work in the Office of Prosecutor from 10 January 2011 to 3 July 2011. This is a great opportunity for a student to work in an important international criminal law environment. The School of Law extends its congratulations to Kaminni on this appointment and wish her well in her endeavours. Kamminni also participated in the School's 'China Knowledge' programme and attended our inaugural International Human Rights summer school in Geneva.

Murdoch Law School congratulates student Jodie Moffat who has won the Morella Calder Prize for a paper written on a topic of maritime law. The trans-Tasman competition is open to undergraduates and postgraduates and is always hotly contested. Jodie's paper is entitled 'Arranging Deckchairs on the Titanic: Climate change, greenhouse gas emissions and international shipping'. Jodie will be presented with her prize at the Gala Dinner of the MLAANZ annual conference in Melbourne on 14 October. The Prize was set up by the Maritime Law Association of Australia and New Zealand to honour the contribution of Morella Calder, a distinguished maritime lawyer who lost her battle with cancer in her mid 40s.

Murdoch Law student Russell Boulton is one of the six winners in this year’s Plain English Drafting Competition for Law Students. This year a total of 90 entries were received: 10 from Murdoch students, 77 from students at UWA and 3 from students at Edith Cowan. Russell received a winner’s certificate and a cheque for $150.00. The Law School congratulates Russell on his achievement.

MSLS is proud to announce that Murdoch University law student Jessica Rusden has won the national Paper Presentation competition over the weekend at the Australian Law Students Association (ALSA) Annual Conference.

Jessica qualified to compete in the national competition after winning the internal Clayton Utz Paper Presentation earlier this year. Students entering the Paper Presentation competition are required to submit a paper between 4000-5000 words on an area of law of their choice. After this, they are required to give a 15 minute presentation of their paper to a panel of judges, at the conclusion of which they must respond to a series of questions relating to their paper and presentation. Jessica's paper was on the controversial topic of the Legalisation of Prostitution.

As the winner of the National Paper Presentation competition, Jessica will now have her paper published in ALSA's Academic Journal.

Jessica was the only Western Australian competitor to win a national competition at this year's conference, beating out opposition from UWA, University of Technology Sydney and Flinders University in the final. Jessica's victory is the third time that Murdoch has won the competition in recent years.

Daniel Kok Guan Chan, a fourth year law student who hopes to graduate at the end of this year, has received an Amnesty International and Murdoch University Human Rights Declaration Competition award. The prize was announced during a function held in the Art Gallery of Murdoch University on Wednesday, 8 April 2009. Daniel’s collaborative entry is titled HOPE. The display seeks to highlight the Articles of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in an engaging and accessible way.

Daniel and his collaborators hope that when “contemplating the articles of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights shown in the display, the viewers will take the opportunity to engage in a personal dialogue with the lives and activities shared in the associated images. While certain images used in the entry reflect the depredations suffered by many in the world, others offer up HOPE by showing that our brothers and sisters in the human family can, with help from a caring human agency, overcome what seem to be insurmountable obstacles”. (text from the Hope page)

The link is: http://chans.com.au/murdoch/amnesty/index.html

Murdoch Law School congratulates its two winners in the Law Society 2008 Plain English Drafting Competition: Kate Adjuk and Bronwyn Waugh. Over one hundred entries were received from all four WA Law Schools, from which only six winners were declared. Kate and Bronwyn were the only two winning entrants in their first year of Law. 

Murdoch Law School congratulates its mooting team, which reached the Quarter-Finals of the Australian Law Students Association (ALSA) Mooting Competition in Hobart this week.

Murdoch’s team was made up of Jeff Geoghegan, Greg Mackay and Emma Taylor, who won the Murdoch Student Law Society mooting competition earlier in the year, and therefore qualified to represent Murdoch at the National Championships, which coincide with ALSA’s annual conference in Hobart.  

In December of 2007, with the support of the Law School, I undertook a summer study program on Modern Day Slavery and Human Trafficking in Zanzibar, Tanzania. The program, run by Seton Hall University of New Jersey, offered an ABA-approved course focusing on the twin problems of modern day slavery and human trafficking, and was taught by a distinguished international law faculty.

Beverley Sorrell and Paula Sullivan from Murdoch Law School won the Law Society of Western Australia 2007 Plain English Drafting Competition. Beverley and Paula are in their first year of law study. This year, the Law Society received a total of 73 entries: 24 from students at Murdoch; 47 from students at UWA and 1 from the University of Notre Dame Australia and 1 student from Edith Cowan. The results of the competition have also been published on the home page of the Law Society’s website: www.lawsociety.asn.au. Prizes will be presented to Beverley and Paula at a function at the Law Society’s premises on Tuesday, 28 August.

The inaugural DLA Phillips Fox Debating Competition Grand Final took place on the 17 May 2007 in the Freehills Electronic Moot Court. The topic was Women make better lawyers than men. The two teams competing consisted of Jessica Rusden, Jade Concei and Samatha D'Silva, as the negative, and Grant Rodrigues, Craig Williams and Anthony Pastorelli as the affirmative, who went on to win the debate. The adjudicators were James Couch, Andrew Pullinger and Johnathon Wyatt (Partner) of DLA Phillips Fox who found it to be a very close debate, with a mere 1 point margin. This fantastic event was organised by the education sub-committee of the MSLS.

Carolyn Herbert and Anita Wood won the Client Interview competition on Monday, 14 May 2007. The competition was held at Allens Arthur Robinson. The students were judged by three partners of the firm. The judges were impressed with the high standard of the competition. Carolyn and Anita will now be competing in the ALSA competition, which will be held in Canberra on 2 July to 8 July 2007.

The Clayton Utz Student Paper Presentation Competition was held on Thursday, 10 May 2007. The papers presented dealt with the following topics: The Priest-Penitent Privilege in Australia and its Consequences (Renae Barker); The Role of Civil Society in the WTO – Transparency, Participation and Efficiency (Watna Mori); Shareholder versus Stakeholder: Examining the Shareholder Wealth Maximisation Model under Australian Corporate Law (Vincent Holland); Fan Fiction and Copyright: Mutually Exclusive, Coexist-able or Something Else? (Ernest Chua); In Focus: Bristol-Myers Squibb Co v F H Faulding & Co Ltd (Simon Yamchikov); and Corporate Social Responsibility Under Australian Law (Craig Williams). The jury consisted of two Clayton Utz lawyers and the Dean of Law, Professor Gabriël A. Moens. The jury declared Craig Williams the winner of the Competition. Craig will now represent Murdoch Law School at the ALTA Conference, which will be held in Canberra in July.

Murdoch University has won the 2007 Academic Challenge, the first of three events in the 2007 WA Law Schools Championship Cup. The team for Murdoch (pictured from left to right) of Peter Clay, Ernest Chua and Scott Fitzpatrick finished first scoring 32 points with UWA in second (27 points) and Notre Dame in third (23 points). This is the sixth time that Murdoch won the Academic Challenge in the eight year history of the competition including four in a row from 2004 onwards.

At a glittering ceremony at Admiralty House in Sydney, Murdoch Law School students Pauline German and Sarah Lealiffano were presented with awards for their entries in the National 2005 Constitutional Law Essay Competition.

The event was hosted by the Governor-General of Australia, His Excellency Major General Michael Jeffery, AC, CVO, MC and his wife, Mrs Marlena Jeffery, at Admiralty House, Kirribilli, located directly opposite to the Sydney Opera House. A number of distinguished Australians attended the event, including Justice Susan Crennan of the High Court of Australia and novelist Thomas Kennealy.

Murdoch Law School expresses their thanks to Noel Hadjimichael, the Director of the Governor-General’s Award program, for his excellent organisation of the event. It is to be expected that Murdoch Law School will continue to take out prizes in future competitions for this important area of legal studies.

Alexandra Shaw has been announced as the winner of the Geoff Ajduk Memorial Prize.

The Geoff Ajduk Memorial Prize is awarded by the Magistrates' Society of Western Australia to a law student who demonstrates a commitment to social justice and/or community service by providing assistance to a disadvantaged group in the community. This community service is in addition to their Law studies. Universities offering Law are invited to submit one candidate for the award.

Alexandra is to be congratulated both on winning the prize in competition with students from other WA universities and also for her commitment to the deaf community of Western Australia. Her Curriculum Vitae was very impressive.

The Grand Final of the 2006 Blake Dawson Waldron Junior Mooting Competition was held in the Freehills Moot Court at Murdoch University on Monday, 2 October 2006.

This year the Blake Dawson Waldron Junior Mooting Competition was the biggest competition in the history of MSLS. The 72 competitors were gradually reduced to four, via participation in six separate rounds. This rigorous process makes it a significant achievement for the participants who earned themselves a place in the Grand Final.

Counsel for this year’s Blake Dawson Waldron Junior Mooting Competition were Adam Hammond (Senior Appellant), Lauren Trlin (Junior Appellant), Robbie Blowers (Senior Respondent) and Naomi Vidler (Junior Respondent).
The competition was judged by Professor Gabriël A. Moens (Dean of Murdoch School of Law), Dr Vernon Nase (Senior Lecturer) and Johanna Weaver (Moot Court Bench Member). The competition, which exceeded the judges’ expectations, was of a very high standard. The unanimous winner of the competition was Adam Hammond. In a very close competition Adam displayed both studious research and eloquent oral argument of the relevant legal issues.

Congratulations to Adam Hammond and all of the participants in the 2006 Blake Dawson Waldron Junior Mooting Competition!

The Grand Final of the Clayton Utz Constitutional Law Mooting Competition was held on Tuesday, 19 September in the Freehills Electronic Moot Court. Four students discussed issues pertaining to the nationhood power, the external affairs power and the acquisitions power of the Federal Parliament. The students were: Ciancarl Rodrigues (Senior Appellant), Sarah Whithorn (Senior Respondent), Courtney-Jade Robertson (Junior Appellant) and Craig Williams (Junior Respondent). The Bench consisted of Scott Girdler (Senior Associate, Clayton Utz), Ernest Chua (Moot Court Bench Associate Justice) and Gabriël Moens, Dean of Law. Courtney-Jade Robertson was declared the winner of the Mooting Competition 2006. The Competition was organised by Scott Fitzpatrick for the MSLS.

The Murdoch School of Law wishes to congratulate first year students Jennifer Edinger and Julia Lee, and third year student Tanya Watson, winners of the Law Society's Plain English Drafting competition.

A team of students from Murdoch Law School has won the Corrs Chambers Westgarth Dean’s List Forum competition, which took place on Tuesday, July 25. The Forum comprises a simulated court hearing, and a small team of outstanding students were selected from the Murdoch, UWA and University of Notre Dame law schools to compete. The forum topic, concerned with interlocutory injunctions, was released to the teams on the morning of the competition.

L-R: Sarah Mateljan, Peter Clay, Greg Mackay, Peter Waddell, Stacey Gardner and Jeff Geoghegan.

The Murdoch team, Sarah Mateljan, Greg Mackay, Jeff Geoghegan and Peter Clay, spent the day in the offices of Corrs Chambers Westgarth researching the topic in preparation for the forum in the late afternoon. The team were mentored by Corrs partner Megan O’Rourke, and assisted by articled clerks Peter Waddell and Stacey Gardner.

Sarah Mateljan was nominated by the team to present Murdoch’s case, and Peter Clay to present the rebuttal. In addition to the team’s overall win, Peter Clay won the award for the Best Speaker in the forum.

The competition concluded with a social function with Corrs’ staff and partners. The Murdoch team were accompanied by the Dean’s delegate, lecturer Sam Luttrell.

Murdoch recently competed in the 2006 National Championships in Mooting, Negotiation, Client Interview, Witness Examination and Paper Presentation at the Australian Law Students' Association Conference in Melbourne. The Murdoch Mooting Team (Matt Berry, Peter Clay and Johanna Weaver) reached the semi-finals where they were narrowly defeated by eventual champions Auckland. Murdoch also reached the Quarter Finals in Negotiation (Nathan Colangelo and Paul Lampropoulos) and Client Interview (Brett Turton and Martin Danger).

The Grand Final of the Freehills Senior Mooting Competition 2006 was held on Wednesday, 17 May 2006 in the Supreme Court, Perth. The students, who participated in the Final were: Brett Turton and Johanna Weaver (for the Appellant) and Matt Berry and Peter Clay (for the Respondent). The Bench was comprised of His Honour Justice Peter Donald Blaxell (Supreme Court of Western Australia), Paul Evans (Partner, Freehills) and Professor Gabriel Moens (Dean of Law, Murdoch Law School). The judges unanimously selected Johanna Weaver as the Best Advocate. Murdoch Law School will be represented at the ALSA Conference in Victoria University by Johanna Weaver, Matt Berry and Peter Clay. Congratulations to all on a most successful event.

Donnelle Baldock, Chris Pattinson and David Jenaway were the 2006 winners of the MSLS Debating Competition.

The topic of the debate, conducted before a panel of judges comprising Associate Professor Dr. John Mugambwa, Mr Stephen Shaw and Dr. Vernon Nase,  was “that Multiculturalism has succeeded in Australia.” 

After a lively, hard fought and entertaining debate Donnelle, Chris and David were named as this year’s MSLS Debating Champions. The presentation of prizes was made by the Dean of the Law School, Professor Gabriël Moens.

Craig Williams and Simone Pillinger came second in the inaugural Intervarsity Red Cross International Humanitarian Law Moot. They were narrowly defeated by UWA, but triumphed over both Notre Dame and ECU.