Interview of Mr.Deven Choudhary, Winner 1st NUALS Moot Court Competition on Maritime Law and the Best Speaker in finals

Mr.DevenChoudhary is a 3rd year Student of National Law University Odisha.

Live law: Congratulations Mr.DevenChoudhary for winning the moot and also for the best speaker award. A few words on the achievement

Deven:It feels great. Can’t express my feelings to the full extent but wining something for your University always feels great. This achievement wouldn’t have been possible without the help of my team mates (Sanghmitra Singh and Arpit Jain) and our mentor (RohitKapoor and Kartik Pant). So a big thanks to all 4 of them and other people who were remotely associated with this success.

Live Law: Why this moot?

Deven: Maritime Law being my interest clearly paved my way to opt for this mootIt is a field at a budding stage with a great future perspective. As far as the material and help is concerned, our University is helping us to the fullest extent to fill that void.

Live law: How was the moot problem and the experience?

Deven:Experience was just marvellous. The moot problem was related to the UNCLOS, 1982, and the dispute was in front of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, which is one of its own kind. The moot problem was pretty tough, and hard one to crack as the time allotted to us was quite less as compare to the issues involved in the problem. Hence, our batch mates were quite helpful to dedicate their precious time in helping us. The Hospitality of NUALS and the Level of Judges were just amazing. In fact in the finals we argued in front of His Hon’ble Excellency GudmundurEiriksson (former judge of ITLOS) and Mr. H.P. Rajan (Former Deputy Director, Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, United Nations), which was an experience of lifetime.

Live law: How does a Moot court Competition helps a law student? Please share your Mooting Experience?

Deven:I think Moot is equally important in a law student life as the academics are. Moot Court Competitions are helpful in various ways. Such as improves your research skills, drafting skills and an exposure in a field in which you may have never looked or researched into. It also improves your speaking skills and for a person like me, who has always been suffering from Glossophobia, gives you a platform to test yourself beyond the limits. All together Moot Court Competitions gives you an experience of lifetime to remember something. This was my second moot besides the 3 intra moot court competitions which are equivalent to a moot for me, with the amount of time and hard work involved in them.

Live law: How far does a ‘team factor’ works in a moot court Competition?

Deven:“Team Factor” is a very important part of a successful team. I think there should be a proper tuning between all the members, with whom you are going to spend a major amount of time while preparing for a moot. If there is a proper understanding among all the members than the pressure also reduces substantially from each and every member.

Live Law: Does speaking/oratory skills really matters or the research alone will suffice to get through the Moot?

Deven:I have always been saying this to my friends that please stop comparing Mooting with Debating. As mooting is not something where, one’s speaking skills or grammatical errors are looked into. It is something where, your legal knowledge is tested. For me the thorough research of the legal area alone would suffice to get through the moot.

Live Law: Please give some TIPS to all the mooters out there.

Deven:Hard work always pays off. Hence, there is no substitute to hard work, research as much as possible and be thorough with the cases and laws you have cited in your Memorandums.

Live law:Well thank you so much. Mr. Deven. We wish you a great future ahead.

Deven: Thank you very much. It’s my pleasure.

Shobhit batta is Student Reporter at Live Law.