pretty prepared by that point. So let's
talk about the actual competition
how was it structured and how did
you go?
rounds. We came up against UNSW,
Bond, QUT and ANU. We won against
QUT... and had knife edge results
against Bond and ANU.
both going to Washington, so we had a
tough draw.
incredibly high to begin with.
actually probably on the lower end of
the number of moots that had been
conducted by the various teams. There
were other teams like UWA who had
been preparing all year that had easily
done 100 practice moots.
an entrenched Jessup culture.
begin with. We were all third year
students so none of us had even
actually studied international law yet.
There were plenty of teams that had
also only had the 4 month prep the
same as us, but the difference was that
they were 5th years and didn't have to
waste the first month figuring out what
jus cogens and sui generis meant.
Australian rounds of Jessup are the
most competitive. You get to Canberra
and you share your stories with the
other teams and you can see the crazy
hours were a common experience with
all Australian unis.
Jessup competitions in Washington have
been won by Australian universities.
did you find the good teams were
doing better than other teams?
so smooth. Their timing was perfectly
allocated. They would have 6 points to
cover and they were like a metronome.
teams and their orals, they know
everything about them. All the cases
and principles off by heart.
you guys are all mooting again this
semester in our Clayton Utz Senior
Mooting Competition. You must
fancy your chances?
came out, it was like "pffft, 5 pages".
the first round the first comment of the
judge was "you did Jessup just recently,
didn't you?"
after your summer of working
together to come back together as
an internal team?
give ourselves space. I think the other
members were concerned that if they
heard any more memes their heads
would explode. Think: "Do Jessup they
said. It would be fun they said."
applying for another external together,
maybe something like the Gibbs moot
down in Canberra.
might imagine, once everything was
said and done, there was some partying
to be had. To this day, the last text
message I have received from one
teammate who shall remain nameless
was "Yeah. Dude I had salt everywhere.
I blame you."
past the long nights and the
"Pedra Branca" affairs to the law
students who may have competed
in some of our internal competitions
but who haven't considered
something like Jessup, what would
you say to them?
depressed for a night. But when you
wake up in the morning there is nothing
you want more in the world than to do
it again.
Everything in terms of your legal skills,
oral skills, written skills.
dressing lesson from Margaret and Ben
vetoing all your ties.
by Margaret every day is incredible.
both her and all the resources the law
school can provide on hand to learn as
much as you possibly you can.
team will be opening soon. Students
should check their student emails for
calls for applications for both Jessup
and other external competitions.