Lord Jones Mooting Competition 2022: And so it begins!

The Lord Jones Mooting Competition, an annual inter-varsity mooting competition hosted by the University of Dundee and featuring teams from across Scotland, has begun its 2022 chapter. The University of Aberdeen Mooting Society is proud to submit two teams of mooters for the second year in a row to the competition. Today, the mooters from the Society got together virtually with the Coordinators, and last year's Quarter-Finalists, to go over the moot problem, a Scots Criminal Law scenario. Notably, this year's moot will be held in-person at the University of Dundee on the 19th of February 2022, being the first in-person external the Society has participated in since before the start of the Pandemic. 

The Lord Jones Mooting Competition is an Inner Temple-style of moot. Here, mooters prepare both sides of the argument and take turns representing one side in one round and the other side in the next round. This demanding format calls for mooters to be well-versed in not just the area of law of the moot but also the strengths and weaknesses of their case as they will be presenting both sides of the moot. 

The University of Aberdeen last won the competition in 2006 in the inaugural Lord Jones Moot. The Society's teams of mooters for this year are aiming to best Aberdeen's performance last year where both teams submitted by the Society made it to the Quarter-Finals after hours of mooting, narrowly being beaten out of a place in the Semi-Finals by the University of Glasgow. This year’s case involves a criminal prosecution of a man who climbed onto the roof of a building and threatened to throw himself off. Also in his possession was, if ingested, a lethal quantity of paracetamol, with the charge sheet listing this as an offensive weapon. 

Clockwise from the top left: Harrison Smyth (2nd Year LL.B.), Syed M. Humaid Adil (Senior External Moot Coordinator), Iona Pernthaller (3rd Year LL.B.), Daniel McKernan (Junior External Moot Coordinator), Candace Ford (2nd Year LL.B.) and Melina Otifeh (3rd Year LL.B.)

The law relating to whether an individual commits an offence by culpably and recklessly endangering just themselves and to what extent the vague statutory definition of an offensive weapons extends to, is far from certain. This case therefore raises important contemporary issues of criminal law. It will be an exciting (and no doubt daunting) prospect for our mooters to dust off their 1st Year Winter Semester notes on Scots Criminal Law and prepare their submissions for this moot. 

If you would like to get involved with the Lord Jones Moot and represent the University of Aberdeen in the future, or other external moots, follow us on social media to receive regular updates!