Victoria. Matthew Nefstead and Jenn Cameron, two students at the University of Victoria’s Faculty of Law, are gearing up to participate in the world’s first ever Twitter Moot, scheduled for 21st February at 10 am PST. The Twitter Moot, a project of West Coast Environmental Law, is essentially a mock-court appeal argued over the popular social media platform, Twitter.
“It’s an interesting challenge,” said Nefstead, explaining why he had chosen to participate in this unique event. “I’m excited to engage with the important environmental law issues at stake in this appeal through such an innovative format.”
Cameron was attracted to the twitter moot because of the unique challenge that the character limit presents for legal argument.
"I really enjoying mooting, and as a new twitter user this opportunity jumped out at me. I'm looking forward to the challenge and the fun we'll be able to have with the use of acronyms and hashtags. It's not very often in law that you get to play around like that."
The appeal being argued, West Moberly First Nations v. British Columbia, raises issues related to the survival of an endangered caribou herd threatened by coal mining and ongoing industrial development. Nefstead and Cameron are representing the Province of British Columbia in the appeal, and will argue that the West Moberly First Nation’s Treaty right to hunt should not extend to protecting a particular herd of caribou.
The Victoria Team is sponsored by the law-focussed communications company, Skunkworks Creative Group Inc. Teams are also participating from the Universities of British Columbia, Ottawa, York and Dalhousie.
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For more information contact:
Andrew Gage, Twitter Moot Administrator and Staff Lawyer, at 250-412-9784.
Matthew Nefstead, Twitter Moot Participant, at 250-634-3436.
Jenn Cameron, Twitter Moot Participant, at 778-679-1240.
For more information about the Twitter Moot see www.wcel.org/twtmoot. For more information about Team Victoria see http://wcel.org/team-uvic. The hashtag for the Twitter Moot event is #twtmoot.