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| Introduction |
The
competition is open to undergraduate law students and CPE students affiliated
to any University or Law College in England or Wales or Scotland. |
| Each team
will consist of 2 students: a Leader and a Junior. |
To enter,
each team must submit an original Moot Problem (see Moot Problem Guidelines) which
must be signed by a teaching member of the Law Faculty at the entering institution.
The moot problem can be written by a student or member of staff. |
Each team
must pay an entrance fee of £15.00 to The Incorporated Council of Law Reporting
by 15th October every year to register for the competition. |
| Only when
the entrance fee and an appropriate Moot Problem (see Moot Problem Guidelines)
has been received, will the institution receive confirmation of their inclusion
in the competition. |
Places
will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. |
Each University
or College can only enter one team
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| Format
of The Weekly Law Reports National Mooting Competition |
The competition will be organized on a knock-out basis,
with five rounds in total. In the event of more than 32 teams applying, selection
will be made in the order that we receive the entrance fee and a suitable Moot
Problem from the teams. The closing date for completed applications and Moot Problems
is around the 16th of October each year. In each round there will be Home (A) and Away (B) teams
with the Home team hosting the event (see Host Responsibilities). There will be
approximately 4 weeks between each round and teams will receive their Moot Problems
within 5 working days* of their progression into the next round.In the First Round
all teams will be notified of their opponents and their Moot Problems within 1
week of the closing date for applications. In all rounds, except the Semi-Final,
teams will discuss an identical Moot Problem. For the First Round, teams will
initially be divided up according to their region. This is to ensure that in the
first couple of rounds teams will be mooting against other colleges or universities
within a reasonable distance. The idea of this is to limit travel expenses and
costs as far as possible. From the quarter-finals onwards, teams will be mooting
on a national basis. (*working day shall refer to Monday to Friday excluding Bank
Holidays)
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| Basic
Rules of The Weekly Law Reports Mooting Competition |
The
competition will be known as The Weekly Law Reports Mooting Competition. The competition
will be administered by Louise Carlin at the ICLR and any queries or comments
should in the first instance be directed to her at mooting@iclr.co.uk
In the event of any dispute The ICLR’s Editor, Mr Robert Williams will make
the final decision.The Editor is responsible for the selection of the Moot problem
for each round, and will be responsible for supervision of the draw for the competition
to ensure that it is as fair as possible.
Any complaints regarding the
organisation of a Moot or the conduct of a team should be put in writing to the
ICLR who will then investigate the complaint accordingly. Any complaints should
be made to the ICLR within 2 working days of Moot. There will be no appeal against
the final decision of the Judge presiding over each Moot.
The winning team
in each round must inform the ICLR of the result within 4 working days of the
Moot. The pairs who win the semi-finals must be the same pairs who compete in
the final. Before the semi-finals, teams can change, but we would encourage teams
to stay together throughout the tournament as far as possible. Either the Mooting
Contact or the secondary contact must be a member of the teaching staff.
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| Guidance
for Mooters/Host Responsibilities |
Most importantly
remember that a Moot is designed, as far as possible, to simulate the hearing
of a case in an authentic court before a judge. A Moot is not a debate, it is
the appellant against the prosecution attempting to persuade the judge of the
validity of their argument.
Unlike an authentic
court of law however, the winner of a Moot may not necessarily be the one which
wins on legal points. This is because Moots were originally a teaching tool for
pupil barristers in the Inns of Court, and are therefore judged as much on structure
and presentation of the argument and how the law is presented to the Moot Court
as on which side the facts favour. Remember to research your argument thoroughly
and try to anticipate your opponents’ argument. You are permitted to seek
advice from your tutors.
HOST RESPONSIBILITIES
• The Home Team (Team A) is responsible for a number of duties:
a. They must provide a Judge (see Selection of Judges)
b. They must provide a suitable Moot Courtroom
c. They must ensure distribution of authorities and skeleton arguments to the court and to the moot
judge.
d. The Home Team (A) takes responsibility to inform the Away Team (B) of the time, venue and date of the Moot.
e. The Home Team must provide a Clerk to the Court whose main responsibility is to keep time and inform the speakers and the Judge when time allotted to the Leaders and Juniors is at 5 minutes remaining and 1 minute remaining.
f. The Home Team must also ensure that both teams and the moot judge are provided with drinking water throughout the Moot and simple refreshments should be made available to the teams and to those attending the Moot.
g. The Home Team should ensure that 4 gowns are available to the team members to wear in the Moot Court.
h. Where possible the ICLR will endeavour to ensure that a team is not a Home Team on consecutive occasions.
I. In each Moot the Home Team (A) adopts the position of Appellant and the Away Team (B) adopts the position of the Respondent.
j. The Semi-Finals and Final will be organised by The ICLR and will be held in one of the Inns of Court and at The Law Society.
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| Style |
Since the Moot Court seeks to emulate an authentic court of law, standard court
etiquette should be observed at all times:
Be courteous to the judge,
addressing him/her directly as “My Lord” and indirectly as “Your
Lordship”. Extend the same courtesy to your opponents by addressing them
as “My learned friend”.
All Mooting team members should be
suitably dressed to appear in court. This means a dark coloured suit and white
shirt or blouse with gowns. Only if both teams agree beforehand can gowns not
be worn in the Moot Court.
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