2013 Niagara Tournament Kicks Off Next Week

Check out this press release on next week's 2013 Niagara International Moot Court competition.  And you can learn more about the competition at cusli.org.

This year's problem was co-written by Professor Michael P. Scharf and Professor Michael A. Peil, and centers on competing international legal obligations in the counter-terrorism context.

Fifteen teams from Canada and the United States will be competing to see who wins the final round.

UN Security Council Ombudsperson, Kimberly Prost, a former Justice of the Canadian Supreme Court, Ian Binnie, C.C., and the former head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs, Judge Thomas G. Snow will judge the competition's final round.

If you can't make next week's competition in Toronto, stayed tuned to CUSLI Nexus for competition updates.

First Twitter Moot Court Takes Place In Canada

by Keith Edmund White
Editor-in-Chief

I find it stunning that this story hasn't gotten more play in U.S. law blogs, but the West Coast Environmental Law (WCEL) hosted the first twitter moot court. The competition simulated an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada on the May 2011 Court of Appeal for British Colombia's decision in West Moberly First Nations v. British Columbia. The case, which suspended a coal exploration permit granted to First Coal Corporation in threatened caribou habitat, "is precedent-setting, confirming that the government of British Columbia has an obligation to ensure that incremental intrusions on the habitat of an at-risk species do not, over time, deprive a First Nation of its Treaty rights."

Here's the twitter transcript, of the two-appellant, one respondent, and one intervenor-case, I'd recommend scrolling up from 36 (the document starts from the end of the competition to the beginning, unfortunately). Dalhousie, Osgoode, Ottawa, UBC and UVic competed the twitter moot. Dalhousie won the competition, but Team UVic won the public's vote of those who followed the debate (41% to Ottawa's 39%).

Below is one of the exchanges that suggests twitter could be the future of appellate argumentation:

2012 Niagara International Moot Court Results

by Keith Edmund White

As promised, the results of the 2012 Niagara Competition are below. Congratulations to all the winners, and thank you for all the competitors that made this competition so successful. Furthermore, any competitors with photos or other memories of the competition, shoot your experiences to cuslinexus@gmail.com. And as a competitor myself, who was horrible at networking with everyone, feel free to leave a comment to say hi (or any corrections to the list).

Niagara Cup Winner

University of Windsor

Memorial Awards*

Best Applicant Memorial 

University of Western Ontario (6)

Best Respondent Memorial

Creighton University 

Runner-Up Applicant Memorials

Queens Faculty of Law (4) and University of Pittsburgh (5)

Runner-Up Respondent Memorial

American University (17)

Individual Oralist Awards

Best Advocate

Gregory Graham, University of Pittsburgh

Runner-Up Advocates

Paul Allen, Creighton, and Alicia Roberts, Pittsburgh University

Third Place

Stacy Edwards, American University

Fourth Place

Reshma Sambre, Michigan State University

Fifth Place

Evgeny Krasnov, Hofstra University School of Law

Team Oralist Awards

Best Applicant

American University 

Best Respondent

University of Pittsburgh

Henry T. King Award

Michigan State University

Team Standings

Niagara Cup Runner-Up – University of Western Ontario

Semifinalists – Creighton University and Michigan State University

Quarterfinalists – American University, Case Western Reserve University, University of Pittsburgh, University of the Pacific McGeorge

*Team briefs can be found online here. They are labeled by team numbers which is the number in the parentheses. Creighton--I'm still looking for your number, it will be updated shortly. Furthermore, please send requests to take down any names to cuslinexus@gmail.com.