Courting European Law

From left: Jeremiah, Lisa, Benjamin and Assoc Prof Ong

A team of final-year NUS Law students has won the inaugural Herbert Smith Freehills Competition Law Moot 2015 held at King's College London from 12 to 14 June.

Jeremiah Lau, Benjamin Wong and Lisa Tan beat teams from University of Helsinki, Maastricht University, University of Leeds, as well as the competition's host university King's College London, scoring the highest among all 12 teams in the preliminary rounds. They went on to clinch the champion title, after a gruelling finale with the University of Amsterdam, before a distinguished panel of judges comprising senior competition law enforcement officials from both sides of the Atlantic.

The fact that the moot competition was won by an Asian team makes the win even more remarkable. "Given that the moot problem was based on European Competition Law, many would not have expected an Asian team to outperform the ‘native' teams, said NUS Law Associate Professor Burton Ong, who coached the team. He added that he was very satisfied to see the trio demonstrate their capability before an international audience.

"We were up against our European opponents, who were eloquent and charismatic graduate students with much greater exposure to European Union competition law. However, we were not put off by the challenges, and were determined to do our best, said Lisa, who bagged the Best Oralist prize with a perfect score. Jeremiah and Benjamin were two out of four runners-up.

It was a great accomplishment for the trio who worked arduously in the lead up to the competition, having had to juggle written submissions for the competition and studying for their final examinations. The following weeks were spent in intense preparation for the oral rounds, including practising with competition lawyers from Drew & Napier, Baker & McKenzie, Rajah & Tann and the Competition Commission of Singapore, a corporate sponsor of the team.

In other international competitions this year topped by NUS Law students, Jeremiah Lau won the D.M. Harish Moot Competition, while Kelvin Chong was the first Singaporean to receive the Martin Domke Award at the 22nd Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot.