Kian Ganz
University College London (UCL) emerged victorious over Kings College London yesterday (22 April) at the inaugural London Universities Mooting Shield (LUMS) final held at magic circle law firm Allen & Overy.
After a mostly pitched 90 minute battle of advocacy skills, the three second year LLB student mooters from UCL won with an exceptionally narrow lead of just three-and-a-half points over King's.
The chair of the three-judge moot panel Andrew Onslow QC said: All three of us were exceptionally impressed by what we saw this evening, all [mooters] have performed excellently.
The problem was highly technical but amusing, involving Jane Hubbard (or the artist also known as Mother Hubbard) dancing and chanting around her front garden naked to Guantanamera while letting off fireworks at sunrise. All this apparently in a celebration of natural birth.
King's argued on behalf of Mother Hubbard's neighbours Jack and Jill Hill, two students who wanted to sleep at sunrise but held no proprietary interest in their property.
The team argued that Mother Hubbard had created a private and public nuisance but the moot court only upheld the private nuisance argument and rejected their claim for public nuisance.
Human rights law was also invoked on behalf of the Hills and Mother Hubbard.
LUMS was founded and organised entirely by four London University LLB students (John Harrison, Daniel Jackson, and Richard Padley and Krishan Thakker).
Teams from King's and UCL beat the London School of Economics (LSE) and School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) over a total of 12 matches since December 2007.
Although his team did not win on the night, David Prowse from King's was judged the overall best oralist of the competition, after all the individual scores from all the matches in the competition were totted up.
UCL winners:
Matthew Abraham
Marco De Sousa
Ronnie Dennis
King's runner-ups:
David Prowse
Urvaksh Doctor
Feniobu Ajumogobia
