NUS Law wins Lex Infinitum 2019

NUS Law took top honours at this year’s Lex Infinitum competition held in Goa, India from 9 to 12 January 2019.

Over the three days of competition, undergraduate students Lee Zhicong ’21, Jerald Tan ’22 and Abigail Wong ’20 competed against participants from 23 other institutions from India and around the world such as Maharashtra National Law University Mumbai and Jagiellonian University, Poland.

NUS Law went up against Government Law College, Mumbai in the finals with Abigail and Jerald eventually finishing as the best negotiating pair.

“It is always nice to bring a trophy home for NUS Law,” said Jerald. “Being part of that experience is more humbling than anything for me. I never thought that we would have such a run in the competition and end up in the finals. Still, we stuck to the lessons we learned from the many training and sparring sessions and fortunately, they paid off. It was truly surreal especially since I am only just starting my law school journey. I felt immensely blessed with excellent support and that gave me the confidence and energy to push myself all the way to the end of the competition.”

Lex Infinitum aims to promote the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in India as well as abroad. The problems used in the competition involved mediations over complex commercial issues such as the payment of reasonable expenses for artificial intelligence technology by a law firm and a dispute over contractual obligations to deliver and pay for iron ore, to more sensitive emotional issues such as a discussion on the future of a family business.

Participating in this competition and learning more about ADR has also given the participants a better insight on dealing with conflicts and disagreements in real life. “The skills I obtained from this journey included effective communication, understanding and appreciating different perspectives and the spirit of collaboration. I find these skills highly transferable and useful, both in the commercial sense, as well as in day-to-day dealings with society around us,” said Jerald.

The team would like to thank Associate Professor Lim Lei Theng ’92, Associate Professor Ruby Lee ’85 and Ms Sonita Jeyapathy ’03. In addition, the team would also like to thank Marcus Lim ’12, Joseph Lim ’19, Mark Lim ’19 and other seniors and alumni who offered their time and expertise to train with the team.