NUS Law emerges as Champions for the 2021 LAWASIA International Moot Competition!

(L to R): Samuel Wee ’24, Karthik Vyas ’24, and Nguyen Minh Tri ’24

Congratulations to Samuel Wee ’24, Karthik Vyas ’24, and Nguyen Minh Tri ’24 for emerging as Champions at the LAWASIA International Moot Competition 2021! This marks the first time that NUS has won the competition.

Undefeated during all the preliminary rounds, the three speakers did outstandingly well. Karthik was awarded the Mah Weng Kwai Trophy as the Best Mooter for his exceptional performance throughout the competition; Minh Tri was the top-ranked speaker in the Final Round and Samuel was the top-ranked speaker in the Semi-Final Round!

This year’s moot problem involved an interplay of five issues arising from a contractual dispute between two commercial entities, involving the AIAC Arbitration Rules, the Prague Rules on Efficient Proceedings in International Arbitration, laws on trade secrets and the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG); amongst other areas of national law. Teams at the competition had to moot as both the Claimant and Respondent throughout the rounds, benched by respected panels of judges from across 23 jurisdictions.

“This was a meaningful competition. In recent years, the finalists at LAWASIA have included the same few universities. It was therefore immensely satisfying for NUS to have emerged from the preliminary rounds with the highest round points and to eventually win the competition for the first time in our faculty’s history. We would like to thank our respected opponents from the law schools around Asia for the tough and engaging rounds.” – Samuel Wee

The team would like to express their immense gratitude to Yohanes Ng ’21 (LAWASIA Runner-up 2018) for coaching the team while concurrently preparing for the Part B exam, dispensing insightful advice and guiding the team throughout their preparations.

The team could not have achieved the win if not for the support from so many amazing people. The team is grateful for:

Mr Tan Ken Hwee (Chief Transformation and Innovation Officer – Judiciary, Supreme Court of Singapore) and Ms Lim Wei Lee (Partner, WongPartnership LLP) for taking time off their busy schedules to bench the team.

They would like to thank their seniors and alumni: Stella Teng ’22, Chester Chin ’22, Ariel Tan ’22, Clara Low ’22, Nikhil Angappan ’21, Rebecca Loo ’21, Sia Bao Huei ’21, Abigail Fernandez ’21, Violet Huang ’20, Tan Fong Han ’20 and Lim Siyang Lucas ’20; who have all competed at LAWASIA before, for the many late-night benching rounds and for providing so many constructive suggestions. The team truly stands on the shoulders of giants.

The team would like to sincerely thank Ong Kye Jing ’21 and Samuel Teo ’21 for their training sessions and for sharing their astute observations on the moot problem with the team.

The team is also grateful for Mr Razali and his assistance with the use of the campus facilities during the weekend of the competition.