Recent Adelaide University graduates Mark Giddings and Tomas Macura have won the prestigious Asia Pacific International Humanitarian Law Moot Court Competition, held in Hong Kong on 13-15 March, beating out teams from top universities in the Asia Pacific region including those from Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Japan.
The competition is sponsored by the Red Cross and deals exclusively with International Humanitarian Law. This is the twelfth year the competition has been run, with 24 teams from 18 countries participating. This marks the first time since 2007 that an Australian team has won the championship.
The final round between Adelaide University and the National Law University of Jodhpur (India) took place in the Hong Kong High Court in front of a five-judge bench including the Hon Mr Justice Patrick Chan, a former Chief Judge of the Court. The victory was awarded by unanimous decision with the Adelaide team being commended by one judge for “An almost perfect performance”.
Mark and Tomas qualified for the competition through their win in the 2013 Australian Law Student’s Association national International Humanitarian Law Moot held in Perth last year. The pair also participated in the University’s inaugural International Humanitarian Law and Advocacy course launched by Associate Professor Dale Stephens CSM in 2013. Associate Professor Stephens was naturally delighted with the win and with the ability of Mark and Tomas to expertly develop and apply the principles of IHL covered during the course, stating that “This is truly an amazing achievement. Mark and Tomas are two outstanding graduates of our law school and their win is a reflection upon their talent and hard work.”
Assisting the team was researcher Ms Sarah Brown who was instrumental in the preparation of the written submissions. The team received the awards for Best Defendant Memorial and Runner-up Best Prosecution Memorial.
The win comes amidst a period of recent high-achievement for the University in student advocacy, with Adelaide teams having made it into the finals or having won several national moot competitions over the last few years.
Photo Mark giddings and Thomas Macura
© ICRC / Y. Sun