I was delighted to  help judge the 2017  Willms & Shier Environmental Law Moot. Thanks to my colleagues at Willms & Shier for inviting me back and congratulations on organizing another successful competition.

The moot was held once again at Ontario’s Court of Appeal in Osgoode Hall, an appropriate venue given that the moot problem took the form of an appeal of the Ontario Court of Appeal’s decision in Midwest Properties Ltd. v. Thodarson,  to the “Supreme Environmental Moot Court of Canada”, a fictional court of last resort.

We have discussed that decision in our recent blog posts: Ontario Court of Appeal Extends D&O Personal Liability for Corporate Contamination to Civil Actions and Midwest respondents refused leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The contestants, all teams from Canadian Law Schools, maintained the extremely high standards of advocacy set in previous years. Their depth of research and preparation became apparent as the advocates dealt with penetrating questions from the bench.

The bench for the final consisted of  three “real life” judges: Justice Malcolm Rowe of  the Supreme Court of Canada and Justices Kathryn N. Feldman (who had been a judge in the Midwest appeal) and Katherine van Rensburg, both of the  Ontario Court of Appeal.

Announcement of the winners of the final, along with distinguished oralists and best written factum, was left to the end of the evening’s awards dinner. Congratulations to all of the winners and, indeed, to all participants.

____________________________________________________________

Manning Environmental Law is a Canadian law firm based in Toronto, Ontario. Our practice is focussed on environmental law, energy law and aboriginal law. 

Paul Manning is a certified specialist in environmental law. He has been named as one of the World’s Leading Environmental Lawyers by Who’s Who Legal: 2016.

As always, these posts  are provided only as a general guide and are not legal advice. If you do have any issue that requires legal advice please get in touch. Our contact details can be found here