Notre Dame Students win National Law Moot

Document Type

Media Release

Publication Date

Spring 11-10-2007

Publisher Name

The University of Notre Dame Australia, Fremantle

Publication Place

Fremantle

Abstract

Law students from The University of Notre Dame Australia, Fremantle have won the national Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) moot competition, held in Sydney.

The AAT is a federal body which hears appeals on the merit of decisions made by government bodies such as Centrelink and the Department of Veteran Affairs.

The competition started in 2005, but this is the first year it has been run nationally. From the beginning of second semester 18 teams from 15 law schools competed in hearings held at AAT registries around the country.

Students, Laura Coffey and Tomas Fitzgerald made up the winning Notre Dame team. They argued on a number of topics with different universities each week. Some of the topics were; Whether documents were able to be disclosed under Freedom of Information legislation, and Whether a couple were in a ‘marriage-like relationship’ for the purposes of the Social Security Act.

After winning all their heats the students were flown to Sydney to compete in the Grand Final, where they defeated Australian National University (ANU). Mr Fitzgerald was also successful in winning Best Speaker for the competition

“This competition has been a fantastic insight into the kind of work the AAT conducts and has given me a real interest in the area of Administrative Law. The opportunity to compete against the best law schools from around the country was amazing, and we are very happy with our success,” said Mr Fitzgerald.

Media contact:


Moira Saunders
08 9433 0611, 0408 959 138

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