A team of Bond University law students has made the world finals of the Sports Arbitration Moot in Spain.
Spencer Bak, Beau Roberts and Charlotte Hoey finished the preliminary rounds of the competition ranked third out of 66 competing teams.
The top 16 go through to the finals where the competitors from the Queensland university will test their skills against teams from a range of international institutions, including Bergen University, University of Miami and the National Law School of India.
The moots will be held in Madrid from May 23-24.
Taking legal reasoning to an international arena
In mooting, law students argue a hypothetical legal case before a judge or panel of judges, practising their advocacy skills and legal reasoning.
This year’s Sports Arbitration Moot centres on a fictional soccer player’s doping violation that excluded him from the World Cup, with opposing teams making the cases for the player and the World Anti-Doping Agency.
The Bond team’s coach, Dr Annette Greenhow, says the Sports Arbitration Moot will help prepare students for international law careers.
“They are networking with internationally renowned arbitrators, sports governance experts and meeting other students with shared interests in sports arbitration and sports law,” Dr Greenhow says.
“They can go into advocacy and arbitration as a career and expand their horizons beyond Australia to international sports federations and organisations like the IOC and FIFA. I’m so proud of how they responded to some tough questions. Often in mooting, how you answer the question is how you demonstrate the depth of your knowledge.”
Bond University’s Faculty of Law has a strong pedigree in mooting stretching back decades.
Bond teams have reached the finals of the Sports Arbitration Moot for three consecutive years and advanced to the finals of the Jessup, the world’s largest moot court competition, last year.
Mooting strengthens lifelong career skills
Bond University Director of Mooting Assistant Professor Lisa Bonin says Bond mooting alumni had gone on to excel in a variety of legal roles.
“Some follow the traditional path and become barristers, others work as solicitors in litigation,” Assistant Professor Bonin says.
“Others are in-house counsel for companies and organisations and some work in government in law or on the policy side.”
