For the third year in a row, UCL Laws has won the annual University of Leicester Medical Law Mooting Competition, held on Saturday 7th December 2019. The competition, now in its eighth year, consisted of five rounds between LLB and LLM students from UK universities. UCL’s team faced Gray’s Inn in the final and were judged by legal practitioners in the field of medical law - including Henry Witcomb QC and Bradley Martin QC.
This year’s problem concerned the law on vicarious liability and the doctrine of illegality: specifically whether a doctor was an employee, or in a position akin to employment, for the purposes of vicarious liability, and whether the appellant’s claim for damages was barred by operation of the defence of illegality.
Commenting on their victory, Villasha Anbalagan said: “We are extremely delighted! It was definitely a challenge preparing for the moot whilst keeping up with our academic work (especially when we had to prepare for both the appellant and the respondent’s sides). Doing five rounds of mooting on the day with short breaks between each round was tough. We are glad that our hard work paid off, and we are very grateful for the support of the Law Society and our friends.”
The mooters and the Law Society extend special thanks to Professor Sir Jonathan Montgomery (Professor of Healthcare Law at UCL Laws) for supporting the team.
By Alex Moja-Chavarria, Senior Moots Officer, UCL Law Society