Nalsar defeat Oz team to win Oxford Price NLS wins Best Memo while all four Indian teams break

Speakers Sourav Roy and Kunal Singh along with Researcher Dhruv Bhattacharya won the Price Media Law Moot Court Competition held from March 21-24, 2012 at Oxford. The competition, into its 5th year, has managed to attract students from nearly 28 universities spanning over 19 different countries. National Law School, Bangalore managed to grab the Best Memorial Prize with a team consisting of Shreya Jain, Manasa Raman and Anita Srinivasan..All four Indian teams (the other two being NUJS and NLU-Delhi) who had qualified in the regional rounds managed to reach the quarterfinals..This year’s edition which was based on the twin issues of protection of privacy and freedom of expression (the full text of the problem can be read here) saw Naslar defeating the University of Technology, Sydney in the final rounds..Speaking to Bar & Bench, Sourav Roy said that the level of judging, which was high from the very start, only intensified as the teams progressed. The semi finals, for instance, had judges including Prof. Dirk Voorhoof, (who inter alia was a lecturer at Oxford’s Summer School Programme on Comparative Media Law and Policy) and Laurence Lustgarten (who was, for several years, one of the Commissioners of Police Complaints for England and Wales)..The final rounds were adjudicated by a bench of seven judges including Shardul Shroff, Justice Kalaydijieva of the European Court of Human Rights and Prof. Timothy Endicott, Dean of Faculty of Law at Oxford..Speaking on the preparation that went into the moot, Roy (pictured with the team and an organiser) pointed out that this moot (like other international moots) required a different approach as compared to domestic moots. “In terms structure and presentation,” notes Roy, “it was quite different from what we did in the national rounds.” While placing greater emphasis on authorities, the team (which consisted entirely of 4th year students) also reduced the pace at which they spoke; a common criticism of Indian teams is that their talking speed is on the higher side..When quizzed about which teams stood out in particular, Roy confesses that it would be unfair to comment on teams which they did not face. Nonetheless, Roy says that some of the teams which were particularly impressive included the University of Belgrade (last year’s winners), Singapore Management University, City University, London and the University of Technology, Sydney..There is a general air of celebration in the campus, notes Roy, but whether this has to do with Nalsar’s first international moot win or it is due to the fact that the college fest is around the corner (or a combination of the two) is anyone’s guess.