Arthur Cox Prize

Lisa Duke

I would like to submit myself, Lisa Duke, for the Arthur Cox Prize. I believe that I am an excellent candidate for this prize because of the successful efforts I have made to promote law in Dublin City University. These achievements have not only been internal to DCU, such as my integral involvement in founding the DCU Law Society and the Annual Law Ball, but externally too, such as organising a national moot court competition and taking part in the Erasmus program as a DCU Law student. I will outline these accomplishments below, and explain why they were important to the DCU community, and to future students and faculty.

Upon arriving in DCU to commence my first year of my bachelor’s degree in Economics, Politics and Law I was surprised to discover that there was no independent Law society in the university. Instead, I found there was a Debate and Law society to which I happily joined assuming that it equally incorporated both law and debating issues. Unfortunately, as the year progressed, I began to realise that although the DCU Debate and Law society were very hands on in organising debates, attending Inter-Varsities and inviting guest speakers relevant to debating, there was very little activity directly related to the law aspect of the society. I was unsatisfied by this and made an effort to participate in other law activities offered within the university.

The first such opportunity arrived when I competed in the Thomas J Finlay Moot. This was an incredible experience that I greatly enjoyed, gained a lot of knowledge from and which contributed to my passion for mooting and legal issues. Furthermore, I became close friends with the other students involved in mooting and together we realised that very few law students understand and appreciate what is involved with mooting. We then explored the possibility of setting up a new law society away from Debate and Law society, in order to promote law related activities such as mooting.

We approached the Students’ Union with this proposition, but it was rejected because Law and Debate society was already identified with law despite, in our opinion, not sufficiently promoting law related activities and issues. The only way that a new society could be formed was if Law and Debate society agreed to give us the name which, at the time, they were unwilling to do because they feared that they would lose members.

I was unwilling to give up after this small hurdle, so I then changed tactic and looked into setting up an independent mooting society. Unfortunately, since it was not a very well know activity this was also turned down by the Students' Union but we were advised to set up a mooting society as sub-committee under the Debate and Law society. We took on this role and formed a sub-committee within Debate and Law to deal specifically with mooting. I acted as treasurer for this sub-committee during my second year and played an active role organising the financial aspects of the committee during the year. Our main success of the year was hosting our very own Moot on the DCU campus which attracted many students from different universities and was a great success. As treasurer it was my role to discover the financial viability of this venture and ensure that we got adequate funding from the Students’ Union.

In order to promote mooting in DCU on a larger scale I participated in the National Mooting Competition held in the Central Criminal Courts with the help of our lecturers. I

was on a team with two other students who also became active members in the mooting society. I thoroughly enjoyed this experience and my team achieved second overall, a result which we were delighted with!

In addition to this, I was really interested in holding a social event for the law students and faculty. I believe that, alongside establishing a Law society, that it was also important for law students within DCU to meet other students from different years and members of faculty outside of classes. Since there was no Law Society at the time, and the Debate and Law society were not interested in hosting such an event, a huge amount of work was required to organise it which included setting a date, promoting the event, printing and selling tickets, contacting a hotel and other various tasks.

The main issue which I had to overcome was convincing the Students' Union to allow us to host the event without the backing of a society. However, once I showed them the numbers and proved that we had sufficiently researched the level of interest that there was within the university, we received their permission. The event was a fantastic success and was attended by over 100 people which consisted of both students and faculty members. I believe that it really helped promote law within DCU, and will continue to in years to come. I am very proud of myself for being a part of the founding of this event which I know will serve as a channel of solidarity and exchange within DCU Law School.

Towards the end of the year, along with the other members of the mooting sub-committee, we decided that, although our committee had been a success throughout the year, we still needed to push for an independent law society to facilitate the law students in DCU. This took a lot of effort and many meeting with members of the Law Society Committee and Students' Union but eventually it was decided that it would be put to a vote within the Debate and Law society to determine if the society should split into two separate societies or remain as one. I was very pleased that the society voted in favour of an independent Law Society and the following year in DCU a law society was formed.

During the second semester of my second year in DCU the opportunity arose to apply to study abroad in our third year. I was very excited by the prospect of studying in a different university and applied to study in Stirling University in Scotland. I was accepted as an Erasmus student and was the first ever student from DCU to study in Scotland. I had a fantastic year. My only regret of going abroad for the year is that I did not get to participate in the first year of the DCU Law society, however I do believe it was left in very capable hands and it was a joy to see their very own stand on clubs and socs day when I returned for my final year.

I would like to conclude by emphasising my individual effort to promote law within the DCU community through not only organising events for DCU Law School, and promoting DCU law school abroad, but through playing an important part of the creation of an independent law society. I believe that this is evidence of my commitment and dedication to the law community within DCU and demonstrates the characteristics celebrated by Arthur Cox. It is my belief that the Law society will develop into one of the most successful societies on campus and will be on a par with the other law societies in universities around the countries in the years to come, and of which I am proud to have been fundamental in its creation.

Thomas J Finlay Moot Court Competition UCD 2011

Runners-up at the National Moot Court Competition 2011

DCU Law Ball Poster 2012