Kirby Moot
The Annual Michael Kirby Contract Law Moot Competition is hosted by Victoria Law School at Victoria University (VU).
About the competition
Mooting is the oldest form of legal training for law advocates. At many universities, mooting competitions can be selected as an elective unit in your undergraduate law degree.
The Kirby Moot demonstrates VU’s strong industry connections. It is a fixture in the legal calendar and has strong support from the County Court of Victoria, members of the Victorian Bar, various law firms and practical legal training institutions. Law professionals are invited to judge the rounds and provide feedback to students.
2025 competition
We are pleased to announce that the 13th Annual Kirby Contract Law Moot will run Monday 22—Thursday 25 September 2025.
Location
This year's competition will be conducted in-person at Victoria Law School, 295 Queen Street, City Campus with the Grand Final appearing at the Federal Court of Australia.
Registration
Registration costs $850 (incl. GST) per team. Only one team per university will be eligible to register.
Key dates
Event sponsors
Past competitions
Past winners
Michael Kirby Justice Oration
Established in 2010, the annual Michael Kirby Justice Oration provides a platform for leaders within our community to share their experiences, deep understanding, knowledge and reflections on issues of justice.
2025 oration - Tilman Ruff AO
Human rights, justice and turning back the Doomsday Clock: Eighty years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
80 years after Trinity, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 55 years after the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty obligated disarmament, and 29 years after the International Court of Justice determined that all states have a legal obligation to achieve nuclear disarmament, the danger of nuclear war has never been more urgent. New more dangerous nuclear weapons and threats to use them have proliferated, disarmament is going backwards, treaties abrogated and the Doomsday Clock stands closer to midnight than ever before.
The World Health Organisation concluded that nuclear weapons constitute the greatest immediate threat to human health and welfare. For nuclear war, there is no cure, only prevention. The weapons must be ended before they end us.
Our best tool against this most acute existential threat to the right to life and all other rights is the historic 2017 UN Treaty On the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).
Australia claims to support disarmament, but is part of the problem. We claim reliance on US nuclear weapons and provide justification and assistance for their possible use through command, control and targeting assistance through military bases like Pine Gap, and increasing operations support.
There are no current guardrails to prevent nuclear weapons being brought into and potentially launched from Australia. Nuclear weapons should not be brought into Australia, and only non-nuclear capable B-52s should be based at RAAF Tindal.
The best way the re-elected government could help prevent nuclear war would be to find its courage and, with overwhelming parliamentary and public support, join the TPNW, as Labor's National Policy Platform commits.
