McGill law students take second place in the Mignault Moot competition between Canadian civil law schools
Four students from McGill’s Faculty of Law have brought home the Yvon Blais Cup for their second-place win at the 32nd annual Pierre-Basile Mignault Moot, hosted on Feb. 5 and 6 in Sherbrooke, Quebec.
Olivier Archambault-Lafond, Yacine Hadjoudj, Geneviève Laurin and Éric L’Italien defended McGill’s colours with verve, according to their coach, Professor Pierre-Gabriel Jobin, who added that this year’s problem was thorny and competition from other universities was strong.
The Pierre-Basile Mignault Moot brings together students from Canadian faculties that teach civil law. Participating universities included Montréal, Ottawa, Laval, McGill, Sherbrooke, and l’Université de Québec à Montréal. The Mignault contest aims to stimulate interest in Quebec’s Civil Law Code, and is named after one of Quebec’s most eminent jurists, the Honourable Pierre-Basile Mignault.
Mooting competitions are simulated trials that give students the opportunity to plead cases before real judges. During the final round of the Mignault Moot, the McGill team had the opportunity to plead before Madam Justice Marie Deschamps, LLM’83, of the Supreme Court, Mr. Justice Jacques Chamberland and Mr. Justice Jacques Dufresne of the Court of Appeal of Quebec.
The McGill Mignault team was coached by Jobin from the Faculty of Law, along with graduates Jean-Philippe Dallaire, BCL/LLB’06, Mariana Ferraro, BCL/LLB’07, Geneviève Bertrand, BA’00, BCL/LLB’07, and Philippe Dufort-Langlois, BCL/LLB’05, from McCarthy Tétrault. Professors Robert Godin, BCL’62, Robert Leckey, BCL’02,LLB’02, and Mr. Justice Daniel Payette of the Superior Court of Quebec also participated in the practices.