Wednesday, 22 February, saw Warwick Law take victory in the fifth consecutive annual German Law Moot, wrestling back the title from last year’s winners, Bristol Law.

Since its inception in 2013, the Warwick German Law Moot remains the only one of its kind in the UK enabling teams from all Universities in England that offer a “Law with German Law” degree, or similar, to compete entirely in German over a German Law problem.

The closest event in nature is the long-standing French language Law Moot delivered by University of Oxford’s Faculty of Law.

Barbara Nastoll, Lecturer at Warwick Law and convener of the Moot, said: “It’s a great experience both for the students and for me as their lecturer.

“Seeing our students mooting over a problem of a foreign jurisdiction in a foreign language with such confidence, mastering not only the law but also the natural competitiveness of a moot, was amazing and made me very proud of them and of what they are able to achieve.”

The winning Warwick team constituted Kit Guy (pictured left), second year German Law LLB student at Warwick and Elena Schmohl (right), exchange student from Freie Universität Berlin. Elena is currently at Warwick for her year abroad, whilst Kit will be headed next year to Elena’s University in Berlin.

This year’s mooting problem concerned nail studio equipment worth 23,000 Euro selling for 1,000 Euro on an online auction site. The seller refused to honour the sale on the grounds that her husband, without her knowledge, had listed the equipment through her account. The buyer proceeded to sue for 22,000 Euro in damages.

The winning team, defending the seller, made a successful case for the lack of the right of attorney on the part of the husband and therefore a lack of contract between buyer and seller.

Ms Nastoll added: “They were very well prepared, the legal argument was to the point and they did a really good job in responding to counter-arguments. After having taught the students for quite some time it was fantastic to see them excel at something they prepared entirely on their own.”

The University of Warwick's LLB with German Law has been running since the 1970s, with Warwick among one of the first to run such a degree.

Previously a branch of the European Law LLB, 2016 saw a firm separation into two courses: Law with French Law and Law with German Law.

Partner universities for the LLB with German Law, at which students can spend a year studying abroad, include: Freie Universität Berlin, Universität Konstanz, and Universität des Saarlandes (Saarbrücken).

Organised by Warwick Law School, the Moot has the support of the International and European Law Society and Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), the German Academic Exchange Service.

The next German Law Moot will be held in 2018. Teams interested in competing can contact Barbara Nastoll.