Congratulations to our high achievers!
A group of Utas Law students has triumphed at the Australian Law Students Association Conference competitions in Perth recently.
Around 30 universities were represented at the conference, with teams from institutions around the world attending. Four teams from UTAS attended.
Megan Formanek is the Tasmanian University Law Society (TULS) Competitions Officer. Part of her role is to select the team for the Conference and she excelled at the selection process; while all students involved put on an excellent show, there were several especially high achievers.
Penelope Owens defeated 27 other institutions' competitors to win Australian Witness Examination champion. Penelope has also previously represented UTAS at a women’s moot competition in Sydney.
Ms Formanek said TULS were initially only going to take three teams to the conference due to the cost.
"Then we got full funding from UTAS Alumni.
"They sponsored our International Humanitarian Law (IHL) team, which consisted of Kristy Riley and David Tan, who have both previously represented UTAS on a national level," Ms Formanek said.
Kristy and David competed in the Australian Red Cross International Humanitarian Law Moot. Competitors are given a complex issue to tackle, which they work on for several weeks.
The IHL team competed in six moots and they came first in ranking and points when they broke to the quarter finals. The competition also involved mooting in Western Australia's Supreme Court in front of members of the International Council of the Red Cross.
The UTAS IHL team did a wonderful job and were placed a close second in the competition out of the 16 universities competing.
Ms Formanek said all the students were "jubilant" after their collective successes and enjoyed carrying their trophy, a big shield, through the airport on their way back to Tassie.
"I think getting the trophy was the most exciting part," she said.
"This is the best result for UTAS in recallable history."
Professor Margaret Otlowski, Dean of the UTAS Faculty of Law, was very impressed with the students’ successes and extended her “warm congratulations” to all competitors.
Image: UTAS Law students (left to right) David Tan, Penelope Owen, Kristy Riley and Megan Formanek.