Vancouver. West Coast Environmental Law today announced the teams selected to participate in its “World’s 2nd Twitter Moot” – a mock court case to be argued competitively over Twitter on November 20th. The five teams selected have two students each from Thompson Rivers University (Kamloops), University of Alberta (Edmonton), York University (Toronto), University of Ottawa (Ottawa), and Dalhousie University (Halifax).
“We were impressed by the calibre of the teams – from across the Country – who applied to take part in this unique event,” said Andrew Gage, West Coast Environmental Law’s Twitter Moot Administrator. “We look forward to seeing these students argue – over Twitter – about whether or not Canadians have a right to a healthy atmosphere on November 20th.”
The teams were selected by the Twitter Moot judges from among those teams that applied on the basis of a series of tweets that the students sent which used the event hashtag, #twtmoot, to refer to the contest. Examples include:
The atmosphere is an even more democratic medium than the internet: everyone participates, but a majority can ruin it for all. #twtmoot (@Baaarbora of Dalhousie)
#twtmoot mooting about the environment 140 characters at a time. Fostering debate, engendering change via #envlaw @WCELaw (@Gradsen of University of Ottawa)
#twtmoot has potential to up engagement in enviro issues among law students and profs. This is important and I want to be a part of it. (@tankersnothanks of University of Alberta)
2012 #twtmoot problem joins medium and message; just as Twitter defies borders, environment can't be boxed into legal jurisdictions. (@canadajon of York University)
Borders, boundaries; to the Air, they are as invisible, as it is to Us. At this year's #twtmoot I'll argue why it's the Air that matters. (@cjalbinati of Thompson Rivers University)
Judges for the Twitter Moot are noted internet lawyer, Michael Geist (@mgeist), UK Barrister and author, Polly Higgins (@pollyhiggins), and Ryerson Journalism Professor Lisa Taylor (@listen2lisa).
The World’s First Ever Twitter Moot in February 2012– which was won by students from Osgoode Hall Law School – was a “trending topic” in Canada – meaning that it was more discussed on Twitter than any other topic in the country. “Mooting” – although not usually carried out over social media – is a popular law school competitive activity.
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For more information contact:
Andrew Gage, Staff Lawyer at 250-412-9784.
To contact participants from each law school, see the companion press releases sent to media in Halifax (Dalhousie), Ottawa (University of Ottawa), Toronto (York University), Edmonton (University of Alberta) and Kamloops (Thompson Rivers University).
For more information see wcel.org/twtmoot.
Click here for a .pdf copy of this release.