So, the team had arrived in Vienna. David and Katherine arrived in Vienna Wednesday night (1 April) and Richard and Michael (our coaches) arrived that same evening. It was a late night for all what with all that the team had to catch up on. And still, David and Katherine were on a mooting break (or ban) until Saturday, so it was well worth the late night story-telling.
The next day, Thursday, the team went shopping, and yes it was a shopping trip instigated by the boys, and Katherine bought nothing! (having already done her dash the day before in Leuven). We had lunch at a delightful little Italian cafe in downtown Vienna, and then went back to our apartment to await the arrival of the glue that holds the team together: Petra.
Thursday night was the official MAA (Moot Alumni Association) welcoming party at the home of the Vis Moot: Aux Gazelles. All the students had arrived in Vienna, and this was the chance to catch up with old friends and meet new ones before the serious part of the competition began. It was a great night had by all, so the next day we travelled out to Schonbrunn Palace slightly worse for wear. But the visit to the palace is an annual event for the Victoria Vis moot team so it had to be done. Later that day was the official opening ceremony of the Vis moot. In true Victoria style we missed the actual official part of the ceremony and arrived just in time for the post announcement drinks and canapes. Of course, not a late event because our first official moot was the next day so we went home to bed fairly early.
Our first moot was against the University of Hamburg at 2.30pm on Saturday (4 April). Hamburg won the Dusseldorf pre-moot, and we had of course won the Madrid pre-moot so it was an excellent first moot for both teams. It is always good to moot against a strong team because it means that you have to be performing at your very best. In the words of Justice Baragwanath, if you get a hard question or hard team, all the better because it allows you to hit back with a greater velocity (like hitting a six in cricket). The schedule is arranged so each team has only one moot each day for the four days of general rounds. Unfortunately we did not have the afternoon "off", it was back home for the team to work on our performance, and the respondent's case in preparation for the second moot.
Our next moot was on Sunday at 10.30am, against Panamerican University, Guadalajara. Another very good team, so once again we had to be on top of our game. Our third moot on Monday was against Nicolaus Copernicus University of Poland at 8.30am(!) This was an early start for both teams, but we managed to deliver on the day. As we had had such an early start we found ourselves with the rest of the day free (sort of) so we took the opportunity to go to the Austrian Supreme Court and meet one of the judges. The Austrian Supreme Court is a beautiful building, rebuilt after a huge fire, now don't tell the Chief Justice, but they have a rooftop cafe and restaurant, where our host treated us to lunch! The team had the rest of Monday night off, in the aid of being refreshed and ready to go for what could have been our last moot of the competition.
Our fourth and final moot was against Stockholm University at 2pm. Stockholm were a fantastic team, and we have to say that we were very glad this was a knock-out round moot, because it would have been a verrry close decision. Tuesday night was the announcement of the teams that would be going through to the final rounds, that is the top 64 teams out of 233 that had competed in the general rounds would be going through. It was a nail biting wait, but we were one of the last teams to be announced as making it through to the top 64. We were very relieved to have made it through, and also that we were mooting the next morning, rather than at 8pm that night! So we scampered home and got stuck into the preparation for our moot against the University of Buenos Aires the next morning...
No comments:
Post a Comment