Grand Final of the Herbert Smith Freehills Disability Mooting Championship: Oxford v Cambridge and Panel Discussion

This exciting mock court case competition aims to promote the study of disability and the law.

The moot is spread across two days, consisting of preliminary rounds, semi-finals and a grand final. Eighteen teams of two students, nine teams from Oxford and nine from Cambridge will take part. Each moot will last for an hour. Preliminary rounds will take place at Jesus and Exeter College, Oxford.

A panel discussion will follow the Grand Finalon the theme of Disability at the Intersections: A “hostile environment” for BAME people with disabilities? In light of the Windrush scandal, the UK government’s immigration policy has been labelled as perpetrating a “hostile environment”.

Panellists will explore whether BAME people with disabilities face “double exclusion” in this context and, if so, how this should be addressed. Discussants will also consider what should be done to increase the inclusion and representation of BAME people with disabilities in public life, both domestically and on the global stage.

Speakers will include: Junie James (Director of the Afrikan and Afrikan Caribbean Kultural Heritage Initiative); Councillor Saghir Alam OBE (former Disability Rights Commissioner and Chair of Action on Disability and Development;); Dr Shreya Atrey (Associate Professor of International Human Rights Law, University of Oxford); Dr Jacqui Dyer MBE (President of the Mental Health Foundation); Kamran Mallick (Chief Executive of Disability Rights UK); and Deborah Williams (Executive Director of the Creative Diversity Network). The panel will be chaired by Nomfundo Ramalekana (Blog Editor for the Oxford Human Rights Hub).

Established in 2014, this event has become hugely successful and is now regarded as one of the Law Faculty’s leading mooting competitions. Following its success, Herbert Smith Freehills have approached the Faculties of Law at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge to establish the first Oxford v Cambridge edition of the Mooting Championship. This will be the inaugural Herbert Smith Freehills Disability Mooting Championship: Oxford v Cambridge.