Amy Woolfson and Marie Morton also beat the five other teams without the benefit of coaching received by some of their opponents.
The pair were judged to have put up the most persuasive legal arguments in the 2013 Welsh National Mooting Competition held at Swansea University on 23 March. A 'moot' is a legal contest designed to resemble a case heard before a judge in court, and was originally used as a teaching tool for apprentice barristers.
Amy played the role of senior counsel and Marie was her junior. The legal argument they had to make concerned the definition of mens rea (the 'guilty mind', necessary to secure a criminal conviction) in a murder case.
Amy said they were 'incredibly pleased' to win. "Many of the other teams had benefited from formal advocacy coaching, whereas OU law students run their team through the student law association.
"I had never met my junior before, although we had talked on the phone many times.
"I was senior counsel for The Open University in last year's competition, where we missed out on the final by one point. So it was particularly satisfying to go back and win against last year's victors on their own patch.
"We had a thankless case to argue in the final, but the judge praised us for our highly persuasive arguments."
The other teams competing were from the universities of Swansea, Cardiff, Bangor, Glamorgan and Aberystwyth.
The Open University Law School has a successful history in mooting competitions. In 2011 the team of OU law students beat 32 other universities to win the ICLR (Incorporated Council of Law Reporting) National Mooting Tournament, and in 2010 were runners-up.
The Welsh National Mooting Competition in 2014 will be hosted by The Open University in Wales.
Pictured left to right: Marie Morton, Amy Woolfson
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