8-10 APRIL 2016

The 5th edition of Novice Arbitration Mooting Competition (NAMCO) was held on 8th to 10th April 2016. This year’s event was held in two different venues, the Faculty of Law, MARA University of Technology (UiTM) and subsequently at the Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Abirtration (KLRCA). As was the case last year, Thomas Philip was the platinum sponsor for the event.

NAMCO 2016 had its opening ceremony on the 8th of April at UiTM’s Faculty of Law. The opening ceremony was officiated by Court of Appeal Judge, YA Dato’ Varghese a/l George Varughese. The opening ceremony was also honoured with the presence of other renowned judges, YA Datuk Dr. Haji Hamid Sultan bin Abu Backer, YA Dato’ Abang Iskandar bin Abang Hashim, YA Datuk Dr Prasad Sandosham Abraham, YA Datuk Lau Bee Lan and YA Datuk John Louis O Hara.

Altogether, there were 14 teams, from 8 different local universities, who participated in NAMCO 2016. The participating universities were UiTM, University of Malaya (UM), National University of Malaysia (UKM), International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), Sultan Zainal Abidin University, (UNISZA),  Islamic Science University of Malaysia (USIM), Multimedia University, and INTI University.

The General Round of NAMCO 2016 was held the next day, 9th April 2016 at the Faculty of Law, UiTM. This year was the first time NAMCO introduced the three-panel tribunal for the General Round, hence a total of 84 law practitioners ranging from High Court judge, public prosecutors, lawyers and academicians were invited to be the judges of NAMCO 2016.

The Grand Dinner of NAMCO 2016 was held on 19h April 2015 at Best Western Hotel, I-City, Section 7, Shah Alam. The dinner was attended by YA Dato’ Abang Iskandar bin Abang Hashim and YA Dato; John Louis O’Hara from the Judiciary, Dr. Haidar Dziyauddin, Dr. Haswira Nor from the Faculty of Law, Mr. Mathew Philip, Mr. Balan Nair from Thomas Philip, guest judges during the General Round, coaches, lecturers, participants and committee members.

The third day of NAMCO 2016 was held on 10th April 2016, at the Kuala Lumpur Centre for Arbitration (KLRCA). The Semi Final and Final rounds were conducted on the 3rd day. At the end of the semi-final, it was announced that the team from IIUM and UITM qualified for the Final round. Retired Court of Appeal Judge, Dato’ Mohammed Ariff Bin Md Yusof was the standout judge for the semi-final round.

The Final was judged by YA Dato’ Lau Bee Lan, Mr. Azinuddin Karim as the moot author, and Ms. Smrithi Ramesh from KLRCA. After much deliberation, it was then declared that the Champion of NAMCO 2016 was team 102 from UiTM. UiTM won the title for the second consecutive year. This year’s event was ended with the Moot and Food Affair, another tradition of NAMCO, which was held at KLRCA’s Cafeteria Pavilion.

Overall, NAMCO 2016 was a great success for UiTM and the Standing Committee. Thomas Philip is glad to have contributed to such an event which provides a platform for novice mooters to take part in a national moot competition. We look forward to another successful event next year!

Event Photos