Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Moot Court via Twitter

West Coast Environmental Law, a nonprofit based in Vancouver, BC, hosted an environmental law moot court over Twitter. The student competitors presented their arguments and judges asked them questions in Tweets on Feb. 21.

The issues involved native people's right to hunt a herd of caribou that was threatened by a proposed coal mine and whether the government had complied with its duty to consult. There were five parties and intervenors represented: British Columbia (appellant), First Coal Corporation (appellant), West Moberly First Nations (respondent), Alberta (intervenor), and Treaty 8 First Nations of Alberta (intervenor).
You can read all the Tweets here.  Note that the advocates refer and link to their "factums" (short outlines of their arguments) and one-minute video supplements.
See #Legalhistory: law students argue first case via Twitter, Osgoode Hall Law School web page, Feb. 21, 2012, L.J. Jackson, @Mootcourt: First-Ever Twitter Moot Court Competition, ABA Journal Law News Now, March 1, 2012 (odd that the article says it was posted tomorrow).

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