Second Place Win for NUSL in National Health Law Moot Court

11.08.08 — Should a rural hospital’s health care team, against their moral and professional judgment, be compelled to sustain the biological functions of a 72-year old patient at the family’s direction?  Does a patient have constitutional due process rights to challenge a hospital’s medical decision-making process when that process is defined by state law?  NUSL JD/MPH third-year students Debbie Freitas, Cristina Freitas and Katherine Scarborough argued these issues in a this fictitious Supreme Court case at the National Health Law Moot Court competition and placed second nation-wide, winning a$750 scholarship.

The 17th annual competition at Southern Illinois University Law School in Carbondale, Illinois, included 34 teams from 25 law schools. Teams submitted legal briefs in early October, and competed head-to-head on November 7-8, 2008, in two preliminary and four elimination rounds. In oral arguments, students presented their case in front of sitting judges and practicing attorneys, who provided feedback to students on their strengths and weaknesses. Students were required to argue both sides of the case, regardless of the side represented in their brief. Both the brief scores and oral argument scores contributed to the final team rankings.

Dean Peter Alexander of Southern Illinois University School of Law, a 1983 NUSL graduate, was thrilled for his alma mater. “It was a very pleasant surprise to learn that the team from Northeastern placed second in the competition that my current law school hosts. I am not surprised, however, that the NUSL team competed so well. Northeastern has long been regarded as a school that provides a strong skills education to its students.”

The competition was co-sponsored by the American College of Legal Medicine, the American College of Legal Medicine Foundation, the Southern Illinois University Center for Health Law and Policy and the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine’s Department of Medical Humanities. Other Boston schools which competed, but did not place in the competition, included Boston University School of Law and Suffolk Law School.