Inaugural Gibson Dunn-OSCOLA Commercial Law Moot

In Michaelmas 2020 the Oxford Society for Commerical Law (OSCOLA) and Gibson-Dunn, a leading international law firm with a major presence in the City, collaborated to hold the inaugural Gibson Dunn-OSCOLA Commercial Law Moot. The competition, which was open to all undergraduates and postgraduates (whether or not they studied law) saw eight teams selected based on the quality of their written submissions, before progressing through quarter, semi, and grand-final rounds.

 

The moot problem itself, which was based around the events of the collapse of a hypothetical tailings dam, concerned the highly topical legal and commercial issue of implied terms of good faith in contracts – as well as contractual construction generally. This required close analysis both of the Yam Seng line of cases, as well the Braganza principle’s applicability to termination clauses. The citable authorities (which were a mixture of Supreme Court and High Court decisions) reflected the prescience of the hypothetical grounds of appeal: the oldest case (Rainy Sky v Kookmin Bank) being just over 10 years old, with the most recent (TAQA v Rockrose) only 11 months.

 

The final was judged by The Rt Hon. Lord Falconer of Thornton QC (former Lord Chancellor and current Shadow Attorney General) and Penny Madden QC. Both are partners at Gibson-Dunn, with Penny Madden being co-chair of the firm’s International Arbitration Practice Group, sitting regularly as an arbitrator herself. The appellants were Alfred Lewis (DPhil Law, Harris Manchester) and Philine Scheer (DPhil Law & Finance, St Hugh’s) and the respondents were John Yap (2nd Year Law – Mansfield) and Benedict Stanley (2nd Year Law – St John’s). After a closely fought contest, with probing and persistent questions from the bench, the respondents were victorious. John Yap was commended as the best advocate.