Oxford wins the 2024 Inner Temple Inter-Varsity Moot

Congratulations to Shivanii Arun (BA Law with Law Studies in France, Merton College) and Christopher McHugh (BCL, Keble College) for winning the 2024 Inner Temple Inter-Varsity Mooting Competition.

This year’s competition took place on 4 February at Inner Temple, London. A total of 16 university teams participated in 2 preliminary rounds, where 8 teams with the best overall results advanced to the knock-out rounds.

The moot problem was centered on public law in the context of jury trials and the right to freedom of expression in public protest. Notably, competitors needed to explore the constitutional role played by juries and the effect of the ECHR on appellate review. The teams alternated between representing the Appellant and Respondent throughout the competition, which required a thorough understanding of both sides.

Oxford’s team were judged by a range of academics, senior barristers and members of the judiciary throughout the preliminary and knock-out rounds, and were grateful for their kind and helpful feedback. In the finals against Durham University, they had the opportunity to be judged by Kabir Sheikh KC, Master Treasurer Mr Justice Soole and Master Paul Infield. They were praised for the logical structure of their argument and their ability to foresee the key points of judicial intervention.