Runners-up at 14th LAWASIA Moot

The NUS Law team comprising Joelle Loy ’20, Nikhil Angappan ’21, Rebecca Loo ’21 and Clara Low ’22 emerged second at the international rounds of the 14^th LAWASIA International Commercial Arbitration Moot Competition, which took place in Hong Kong from 5 to 8 November 2019.

In addition, the team was presented with the Spirit of LAWASIA trophy, which is awarded to the team that best reflects the ideals, values and virtues of fair play, camaraderie and magnanimity in a competition environment. Nikhil Angappan was also commended by the organisers for his stellar performance as the First Runner-Up for the Best Oralist award. Cumulatively, this marks NUS’ best-ever showing since its first appearance at the competition in 2008.

Held at the Hong Kong Shue Yan University, the team faced off against the top two teams from the Malaysian national rounds, as well as teams from Taiwan and Shanghai in the preliminaries. The team subsequently emerged as the top seed after being pitted against two teams from India and both Malaysian teams once again in the quarter- and semi-final rounds, respectively.

In the lead-up to the finals, the team appeared before distinguished panellists comprising academics, practitioners, senior counsels and a retired Supreme Court judge from the Commonwealth. The team eventually bowed out against the defending champions, the University of Malaya, at the final round, which was held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The moot problem involved a Hong Kong-seated arbitration that concerned an auctioned artwork, which had unforeseeably shredded in the wake of its sale. The issues in dispute included whether the Claimant was entitled to possession of the artwork, whether the Respondent had granted a valid payment extension, whether the emergency arbitrator had exceeded his jurisdiction, and whether the present Tribunal had the power to vacate the interim decision under the expedited procedures framework of the Asian International Arbitration Centre.

The team would like to extend their deepest gratitude to their dedicated coaches, Andrew Foo and Ian Choo ’18, as well as Edmund Kronenburg ’96, Jonathan Choo ’02, Jared Chen ’09, Emily Choo ’10, Andrew Chua ’17, Jonathan Trachsel ’17, Rachel Tan ’17, Joshua Chia ’18, Kiu Yan Yu ’18, Nicholas Ng ’18, Mark Lim ’19, Tan Fong Han ’20, Violet Huang ’20, Abigail Fernandez ’21, Sia Bao Huei ’21 and Yohanes Ng ’21 for their tireless assistance and invaluable advice to the team during their preparations. Finally, the team wishes to thank Associate Professor Lim Lei Theng ’92 for providing them with the opportunity to participate in the competition.