Moot Madness: UM Law takes the title 

Posted: 6:07 pm Mon, March 15, 2010
By Danny Jacobs
Daily Record Legal Affairs Writer

A team from the University of Maryland School of Law has won the International Environmental Moot Court Competition

The Maryland team of Molly Knoll, April Morton and William Tilburg defeated a team from the Law Society of Ireland, Cork, Sunday at Stetson University College of Law in Tampa, Fla., last weekend. Knoll was named the competition’s best oralist, and the team’s appellate brief was judged to be the second-best of the competition.

After defeating teams from Ukraine, Brazil and India in the preliminary round, the Maryland students claimed the championship by winning three elimination-round matches within a span of five hours — a draining stretch that left the team excited but speechless after the final.

“We joked that with all of the arguments, we used up all of our words,” Knoll said.

The Maryland team’s victory came less than two months after they went 4-0 in a regional qualifying competition to reach the finals. They finished 11-1 overall in the competition, which involved 75 schools from five continents.

“To be so dominant and successful is tremendously rare and wonderful,” said David Mandell, who coached the team along with Karla Schaffer.

Mandell and Schaffer, both adjunct professors and 2007 graduates, speak from experience, having been on the law school’s 2006 team. Schaffer was impressed by how the team, all second-year students, handled the judges’ questioning during each session.

“They kept their composure and their poise,” she said.

This year’s case raised echoes of the dispute between the Navy and environmentalists who unsuccessfully sought to bar the use of sonar off the California coast, claiming it was harmful to whales and dolphins.

Instead of pitting one government against a group of activists, though, the hypothetical involved a dispute between fictional neighboring nations. The petitioner, highly dependent on marine life for its tourism-based economy, sought to bar the respondent from conducting underwater sound exploration for energy resources.

The Maryland team advocated for both sides during the competition but purposely wrote its brief on behalf of the respondent because of the team members’ pro-environment bent, Morton said.

“For us, it was the harder side to wrap our head around,” Morton said. “It made us think more deeply and learn the law better.”

While the scenario is imaginary, teams use actual international law and treaties to argue their cases.

Morton and Knoll also learned about how law is practiced and taught in different cultures.

The students on the team from Ukraine, for example, were younger because they begin legal training right after high school. The team from India entered the courtroom with stacks of books, ready to back up any of their claims, and presented their arguments in a style alternately deferential and aggressive.

One team that particularly impressed Knoll was from the China University of Political Science and Law, the only students to defeat the Maryland squad.

Perhaps it was fitting: the Chinese team was originally taught by Robert Percival, director of Maryland’s environmental law program, when Percival spent a semester there two years ago on a Fulbright scholarship. Schaffer also visited the school with Percival and judged some of their practices.

“We felt a little bit of added pressure,” Mandell admitted.

The Maryland team regrouped after its loss, however, and defeated the Chinese team in the semifinals.

As the winner, the University of Maryland School of Law will host the international final next year.