Oxford mooters at national semi-final

Early in 2007 Oxford selected two mooters to compete in one of the most prestigious national mooting competitions: the OUP National Mooting Competition. The mooters were an all-Magdalen team of James Chapman and Andrew Hilland.

James and Andrew succeeded in four rounds of this knock-out competition, qualifying for the semi-final which was held in Oxford on 21 June 2007 and judged by Dr Joshua Getzler of St Hugh's college (judging without the knowledge of which universities were appearing before him).

All four mooters performed at what Dr Getzler described as "an astonishingly high standard of advocacy" and dealt lucidly with a barrage of difficult questions relating to the central issue in the moot: has administrative law on substantive legitimate expectations strayed too far into merits review?

The team from Oxford were judged the winners and they now advance to the Grand Final of the OUP Moot to be held in London before one of her Majesty's judges. The Oxford team will argue a thorny problem involving a clash between the right to religious belief and the criminal law.