Celebrating completion of the International Digital Moot and Advocacy Competition – iMAC Digital – the first international digital moot competition.
The event was attended by lawyers from a range of fields and levels of seniority; geneticists; PhD candidates in law, genetics and creativity; and undergraduate, postgraduate, GDL and professional vocational (BPTC) students from a number of universities.
The event included interactive learning about genetic science, as well as short talks in genetic science and the regulation of genomic data. These activities were designed to cover issues raised in the moot problem – a genomics law problem covering a range of genomic related matters, including data processing, data beaches, anonymisation, information, discrimination, clouds and jurisdiction. Prizes for knowledge on genetics were also given out during the event.
Winners of the iMAC Digital competition were announced, with the top 12 performers receiving Certificates of Achievement. We congratulate all those that took part in the competition – all participants have learned about a new important field, genomics, as well as advocacy skills for the digital era. We also congratulate the top performers the winners of the competition – the team of the University of Salford – as well as the ten participants achieving highest scores. Among the top performers were the teams of City University (2nd place), Warwick University (3rd place), Bristol University (4th place), and Manchester Metropolitan University (5th place).
Participants provided their opinions on the law in the respective fields, including genetic discrimination (insurance, employment, education, identified groups); genetic data and information we can extract from genomic data; and on whether training of lawyers and judges should include basic knowledge on genomics.
The event was followed by a reception with drinks and canapes, where attendees had the opportunity to ask questions about genetics and genomics law, as well as to talk with other guests.
The event took place on 20 June 2018 and was organised by the UKLSA and The Accessible Genetics Consortium (TAGC), and hosted by InLab, Goldsmiths, University of London.
The team at the UKLSA thank InLab for hosting the event, TAGC for helping with the competition and for co-organising the event.
