ANU law students have had remarkable success at the 2024 Australian Law Student’s Association's (ALSA) Annual National Conference. 

This year, the ALSA conference took place in Hobart, Tasmania, during the winter break.

The ALSA Championship Moot was won by ANU third-year students Sophie McBeth, Jake Fitzgerald and Ollie O’Kane. They also won Best Appellant Written Memorial, Best Respondent Written Memorial and Best Overall Written Memorial. 

“We are very grateful to receive these awards. Researching niche areas of consumer, contract and tort law is probably not the first way to spend the winter break that comes to mind, so it was great to see everyone’s efforts be recognised,” said Jake on behalf of the team. 

“We have each enjoyed mooting variously in the past and thought this competition offered us another great opportunity to develop our legal research, writing and oral advocacy skills.”

The team remarked that they were incredibly privileged to have the opportunity to moot before ANU alumnus the Hon. Robert Thomas Beech-Jones, Justice of the High Court, as well as the Hon. Chief Justice Blow and the Hon. Justice Wood of the Supreme Court of Tasmania.

In the Red Cross International Humanitarian Law Moot Competition, third-year ANU students Bita Mahani and Cian Bowes and fourth-year student Ruby Wong reached the semi-finals and won the Spirit of the Competition Award. 

Bita, who also won Best Speaker in the IHL Moot, said her team’s success was a long time coming. 

“We had dedicated much of our winter holiday to preparing for this competition and getting our heads around the interaction of the law with the complex problem question, so getting to the semi-final and receiving the Spirit of the Competition Award and Best Speaker was a lovely close to a great experience, and we’re incredibly grateful to our friends and the ANU College of Law for their support in getting us there.” 

Reflecting on his team’s success, Cian commented on his team’s dedication and hard work. 

“I am particularly proud of our team winning the Spirit of the Competition Award as I feel that it is a testament to the well-rounded approach we brought to the competition. We had prepared extensively and that showed through us breaking to the semi-final, however more importantly we conducted ourselves with respect and warmth to our fellow competitors, judges and volunteers.”

Similarly, Ruby noted that passion, tenacity and hard work are "absolutely fundamental".

In the Paper Presentation Competition, third-year law student Kai Mitchell was awarded the Australian Champion.

Kai wrote about the interaction between anti-terrorism legislation and human rights in Australia, Singapore and the Philippines, which furthered his understanding of different countries’ legislative approaches to security issues.

“[Winning the Paper Presentation Competition] is very gratifying for me. I spent a lot of time writing my paper and preparing to present it and it was rewarding to have that effort recognised. This recognition has also given me confidence in the quality of my writing and my ability to communicate ideas, which I hope will serve me well in future academic pursuits,” said Kai.

“I am particularly grateful that the competition gave me the opportunity to write on the relationship between law and international security issues and I intend to write future papers in this space.”

After an extremely successful ALSA conference, the ANU delegates strongly encourage other students to consider taking part in mooting competitions. 

“For those students who have not yet mooted before, get involved! The internal ANU novice mooting competition run but the ANU Law Students’ Society is a great place to start. For more detailed information on how to prepare for your first moot, check out the LSS Competitions Guide, which provides a range of tips and tricks to help you get started.