2014 Stetson Environmental Moot
First year students Narissa Knowles, Tamar Moss and Theominique Nottage recently competed in the 19th Stetson International Environmental Law Moot in Denver Colorado, January 24-25, 2014. The theme for the moot was the Protection of Sea Turtles in the Marine Environment. The ICJ styled moot revolved around a dispute between two fictitious countries and their rights to an endangered sea turtle. A small group of inhabitants in one of the counties kills and consumes the turtle as a cultural ritual whilst the other country, which is heavily eco-tourism based, seeks the preservation of the species which shares its life cycle between the waters of the two countries. The students were required to balance the competing interests of cultural rights and environmental protection.
The students represented EDLS valiantly. Following a close opening round defeat to the University of Hawaii (the eventual finalist in the competition), Team EDLS rebounded to defeat The University of Kansas and the University of Baltimore in the preliminary rounds.
Whilst we did not advance to the semifinals, Team EDLS won two (2) of the four (4) Best Oralists prizes. Tamar Moss was named Second Best Oralist whilst Theominique Nottage was named Fourth Best Oralist. The individual oralist prizes rewards advocates who achieve the highest totals in oral scores. It is quite an achievement for one school to take away 2 of the top oralist awards when we consider the large number of individual competitors.
Unfortunately, Narissa Knowles was ineligible to be considered for a top oralist award as she had only argued once. On that one occasion however, she was the lead advocate in a hard fought victory against the University of Kansas, who was ranked as the team with the highest memorial score.
I am yet to coach a more dedicated, focused and determined group of students, the three of whom are a credit to the law school. They demonstrate that notwithstanding our size and limited resources we can compete with and defeat schools with hundreds and thousands of students. It was indeed a privilege to watch the students respond to rigorous questioning by the judges on their arguments, dissect the authorities to advance their arguments and intelligently conceding when and where appropriate.
During the rounds, the students were continually recognized by the judges for their professionally delivered presentations, the depth of their preparations, responsiveness to questioning, eye contact and overall knowledge of international and environmental law.
As their coach I am exceedingly proud of all of their performances.
Winder, J. ( Atg.)