Vancouver.  West Coast Environmental Law is inviting law students from across Canada to participate in a unique social media competition.  The “Twitter Moot”, to be held on Friday, February 28^th, 2014, at 10am PST, will see teams from Law Schools from all across Canada participate in a mock court hearing over the Twitter social media platform, arguing an appeal to the Supreme Twitter Court of Canada.   Students are invited to audition – over Twitter – by December 6^th, 2013.

“We want to get people talking about mining, Aboriginal Rights and environmental law,” explained Andrew Gage, Staff Lawyer.  “This is taking an important legal debate out of the court room and onto Twitter.”

This year’s Twitter Moot will focus on an appeal of Ross River Dena Council v. Yukon, a precedent-setting decision of the Yukon Court of Appeal which last December held that the Territory’s mining laws did not provide for adequate consultation with the Ross River Dena Council.  Similar (although not identical) laws are in place in many of Canada’s provinces, making the case an ideal one for the Twitter Moot to focus on.

The Twitter Moot is scheduled to be held at the same time as North America’s largest Public Interest Environmental Law conference, held each year at the University of Oregon, and will be profiled at the Conference.  “This will give the students unparalleled exposure to some of the top environmental lawyers in North America.”

The hashtag for the Twitter Moot is #twtmoot.  West Coast Environmental Law made social media history when it held the world’s first Twitter Moot in February 2012.  The event was a trending topic in Canada, with an audience in the thousands.  The second Twitter Moot was held in November 2012.

West Coast Environmental Law invites inquiries about sponsorship opportunities.  For information about how to field a team, visithttp://wcel.org/competing-twitter-moot.

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