28 March 2005

Lady Cosgrove presides over criminal law case

Photo opportunity 6: 40pm, Tuesday 29 March, Moot Court Room (Room 4.08), Scrymgeour Building, Park Place, Dundee.

Lady Cosgrove, one of the most senior judges in the country will visit the University of Dundee on Tuesday 29 March to preside over the final of the University of Dundee's mooting competition which involves the consideration of a Scots criminal law issue.

The finalists in the University of Dundee mooting competition will pit their wits against each other, arguing the merits of Scots criminal law legislation in front of Scotland's most well known female judge.

Second year law students, Alison Blair and Lucy McGhee will moot against first year law students, Michael Duffy and Steven Lampert on the right of an individual found with a knife in their possession in a public place to then argue as a defence that they had no intention of breaking the law.

In the case to be mooted, the accused claims that the knife found in the jacket he was wearing did not belong to him, that it belonged to his brother and that he was unaware of the contents of the jacket.

David Cabrelli, lecturer in the Law Department and organiser of the mooting competition said: "We are delighted to welcome Lady Cosgrove to the Department of Law. A competition like this is essential for our future lawyers to get their teeth into a controversial case which involves difficult questions of criminal law and I'm sure that Lady Cosgrove will have some extremely interesting points of reference and guidance for our students on this topic."

The Principal of the University of Dundee, Alan Langlands, will also be present at the moot and Lady Cosgrove will also give students the opportunity to interview her briefly on any points of law after the competition.

Notes to editors

1. To be found with a knife in an individual's possession in a public place is an offence in terms of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995, section 49(1).

Contact David Cabrelli on 01382 344601

By Angela Durcan, Press Officer 01382 344768, out of hours: 07968298585, a.durcan@dundee.ac.uk