BCL Candidate Dane Luo winner of the Landmark Chambers Judicial Review Moot 2024

Dane Luo, BCL Candidate at Wadham College made history by becoming the first Oxford student to win the Landmark Chambers Judicial Review Moot. 

The Landmark Chambers Judicial Review Moot consisted of four rounds involving a judicial review proceeding on administrative and planning law matters. This year, 35 universities across the United Kingdom participated. The University of Oxford was represented by Dane Luo (BCL, Wadham College) and Shastikk Kumaran (BA in Jurisprudence, Mansfield College). In the first round before barrister Barney McCay, the University of Oxford competed against the University of Glasgow on a moot about a common law duty to give reasons. Oxford scored in the top 8 teams to proceed to the quarter-finals.

In the quarter-finals, before barrister Stephen Morgan, Oxford defeated the University of Nottingham on a moot about whether a planning condition on proposed development served a planning purpose and was related to the development. In the semi-finals, before barrister David Blundell KC, Oxford prevailed against the Inns of Court College of Advocacy on a moot about whether a Planning Inspector had correctly applied a national planning policy and lawfully considered alternative sites for the proposed development.

In the grand final, Oxford competed against City, University of London before The Rt Hon Lord Carnwath of Notting Hill CVO PC, a former Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, and David Elvin KC in the Royal Courts of Justice in London. The moot concerned whether it was lawful for the environmental impact assessment process for a development involving the extraction of fossil fuels for commercial purposes to not include an assessment of greenhouse gases produced by the use by the end consumer of the fossil fuels. This was based on the current appeal of R (Finch) v Surrey County Council & Ors in the Supreme Court where judgment is presently reserved.

Upon winning the Moot, Dane paid special thanks to academics Professor Liz Fisher, Dr Joanna Bell, and Sonam Gordhan for supporting him and Shastikk with holding practice moots.