Page 5 - Law Academic Newsletter 2015

5th Annual Child Law Moot Court Competition:The Centre for Child Law Advances Knowledge on Child Law and Children’s Rights
The Centre for Child Law, based at the University of Pretoria, hosted its 5th Annual Child Law Moot Court Competition during September. The competition is held on an annual basis with the aim of developing an awareness of children’s rights amongst law students and facilitates problem solving and litigation in the field of child law.
This year’s hypothetical facts centred on the challenges of balancing the rights and interests of a young accused being tried in a Child Justice Court and the interests of media who would like to attend and cover the trial. The young accused was charged in terms of section 20 of the Child Justice Act 75 of 2008, with culpable homicide, reckless and negligent driving and driving without a licence. When the young accused turned 18 while his trial was still being heard in the Child Justice Court, the media attempted to attend and cover the trial. The Presiding officer of the Child Justice Court, after an application by the young offender’s legal representative, barred the media from the proceedings
Best Speaker: Moya Vaughan Williams
and from publishing any information that would lead to the identification of the young offender. This decision was taken on appeal by the media.
Deputy Judge President Ledwaba
Five (5) Universities took part in this year’s competition namely the University of Johannesburg, Rhodes University, the University of Limpopo, the University of the Western Cape and North West University (Mahikeng Campus). All the teams showed themselves to be well prepared and thoroughly interested in the case.
Teams were required to prepare written and oral arguments for both parties and gave arguments in front of a simulated full bench of the North Gauteng High Court. The preliminary and semi-final rounds of the competition were held at the Law Faculty of the University of Pretoria. A number of legal academics, practising attorneys and advocates sat on the simulated full bench of these rounds, giving participating teams
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