On Monday 17 March 2014, two students from the Faculty of Law in the University of Cambridge won the Seventh Annual French Law Moot held at the University of Oxford. The competition featured 12 teams from around Europe, arguing in French, on French law.
None of the competitiors had degrees in law from French Universities. LLM students Bruno Gelinas-Faucher and Francis Legault-Mayrand performed excellently, proceeding through preliminary rounds, the semi-final and finally competing against a team from the University of Madrid.
The competition was judged by distinguished academics and practitioners, culminating in a final before Alain Lacabarats (Président), Président de la chambre sociale de la Cour de cassation, and Professor Marie Goré from Paris and one of the senior lawyers from French Law Firm Gide Loyrette Nouel, Mr Bruno Quentin.
To win the competition is an incredible achievement, topping the results in 2013, when Cambridge were runners-up. Bruno and Francis have won prizes from the Henri Capitant Association, as well as from le Cabinet Gide (including an internship). Particular thanks are due to Henri Decoeur, a PhD student in the Faculty who coached the Cambridge team superbly, and to Victoire Thibaut de Menonville, an LLM student who assisted with the research and preparation for the moot. The Faculty Mentor was Dr Matt Dyson.
The Eighth Annual French Law Moot is expected to take place on 16 March 2015 and a call for competitors will go out in Michaelmas term 2014.
Dr Matt Dyson, Henri Decoeur, Bruno Gelinas-Faucher, Francis Legault-Mayrand and Victoire Thibaut de Menonville. For more photographs see the Faculty Flickr Photostream.