What is a moot court?

Artificial courts for the law students are called moot courts. It is a kind of a debate on the
specific case decided by the court or specific subject or issue or an imaginary case prepared
for this purpose. It is an extracurricular activity organized at many law colleges in which
students take part in mock court proceedings that involve drafting memorials and speaking at
oral argument.

It is a great method of learning law and legal skills that require the students to analyze and
argue both sides of a hypothetical legal issue using procedures. Mooting is considered a
specific form of stimulation in which students are asked to argue points of law before a
stimulated court. Moot court, however, does not involve actual testimony by witnesses or the
presentation of evidence, but is based solely on the application of law to a fabricated legal
issue.

The Moot problem is designed to argue before the appellate form because in most colleges
they are conducting National level or International Level moot courts where judges pretend to
belong to the Supreme Court or International Court of Justice. In fact, the moot problem can
also be designed to argue before the trial court. Practically, it is done rarely.

What does it take to participate in a moot court

competition?

Participating in moot court requires great skill and a great research work. Without research
most submissions of any counsel would be hot air. When you participate for the first time,
you did not know where to start and how to do research work. You may totally caught
unprepared. Many issues arose between team members because we didn’t know how to
divide our work and how to start, but anyhow you have to submit memorial. You have to
submit memorial and afterwards there’s an oral submission. It gives a great experience too
though you come to know many mistakes. But as we know that “success comes from
experience and experience comes from bad experience.”
Though you may have a very bad experience, you learned a lot. May be your memorial is of a
very high legal quality but you may loose points on editorial technicalities and on research
work. Considering the fact that the memorials make up 50% of the total score, making a good
memorial is actually critical. A well-written submission, a logically built-up argument is
easier for a judge to understand. Judges are more likely to pick up counsel’s line of argument
and, hopefully, approve of the submissions. A well written, neat and uniformly presented
document will show the judge that the effort has been put into the case.

Where to get started in a moot problem

The best way to start a memorial is to read the problem as many times as you can and clear
up your basic regarding the topic involved in proposition. A lot of reading skill is required.
Your initial reading will give you a lot of insight as to how to go about the entire research and
then accordingly members can divide their work.

Firstly, issues should be decided and divided among team members. It is very important to
maintain a constant coordination regarding the research involved and keep on discussing
various lines of arguments. It will make the work easier for all the team members and then all
members can carry out their work accordingly.

Every moot, like every court proceeding, has two sides, the appellants and the respondents.
Usually you have to prepare for both sides. A Moot team comprises of, generally, 2 speakers
and 1 researcher.

Every moot has 2 aspects you are judged on. They are:

– Written submission called the memorial

– Oral submission

The written submission of memorial must contain the following things. The facts have to be
arranged in the following manner. They are:
Cover page

The cover page of each written submission of Memorial must have the following
information:

The name of the forum before which the proceedings are being conducted;

The title of the competition;

The name of the case;

The Title of the Memorial (“Memorial submitted on behalf of the Plaintiff or Petitioner or
Appellant” or “Memorial submitted on behalf of the Defendant or Respondent or
Respondent”).

The cover pages must be Blue for Plaintiff or Petitioner or Appellant and Red for Defendant
or Respondent or Respondent.

Plaintiff (Blue) v. Defendant (Red);

Petitioner (Blue) v. Respondent (Red);

Appellant (Blue) v. Respondent (Red);

The upper right side of the cover page must contain the Team Code that shall be assigned to
each participating teams during Registration. Names of Participants, or Colleges or
Universities should not to be mentioned anywhere on the Written Submission of Memorial
(you should check the specific rules regarding this though).
Table of contents

It contains a list of chapters and paragraphs that are included in the memorial. We can also
mention page numbers of chapters and paragraphs. By mentioning page numbers it will be
easy for the judges and speakers to find out the mentioned arguments. The argument is the
most complex part of the brief. Therefore, the headings and subheadings used within the
argument section should also be listed in the Table of Contents with the corresponding page
number.

Index of authorities

In this all the materials which support your argument have to be added. The authorities of
Supreme Court and High courts, foreign judgments, statutes, and parliamentary debates are
mentioned under the index of authorities. Sources refer through articles, text books, journals,
and websites are also mentioned. This is not only helpful for the speaker but also useful for
the judge and other side speaker to easily determine what case laws, constitutional provisions,
statutes or other materials are being cited. Uniform citation method has to be followed.
Citation is crucial part of memorial; it should be in correct format. Citation helps to determine
from where the certain cases, statutes or other materials have been taken. It gives easily
reference to the judges from where certain part has been taken.

List of abbreviations

It should contain all the abbreviations used in your memorial. Each abbreviation should
contain the full meaning and in whole memorial same abbreviation should be followed. It is
also necessary for the speaker to know what abbreviations they are citing in their memorial.

Statement of jurisdiction

Jurisdiction is the most important part of memorial. The jurisdiction of the court should be
clearly mentioned with the reason. Finding the proper jurisdiction is very important. Judges
surely ask questions and thereby it is important to know the jurisdiction of the court.
Statement of facts/ Synopsis of facts

These statements of facts/ synopsis of facts are an important part in memorial presentation. It
generally convinces the court about your client’s position and its point of view. A judge may
be well versed in law but he doesn’t know about the facts of your particular case. So, a brief
summary of facts have to be written clearly in the beginning of the memorial but generally it
should not be more than two pages. Knowing of facts in brief is very necessary, so it is
important for a speaker to go through the facts carefully and only relevant facts should be
mentioned in your memorial. Facts should not be uninteresting. It should be in a manner that
a person enjoys reading and it proves on your side. The facts should not be assumed one; it
should be real as given in the proposition.

Statement of issues

This is a short introductory statement of the legal issues or points of law involved in the case.
It tells the judges precisely what legal issues the speaker wants the court to decide. These
statements should be phrased to help one to argue for a particular conclusion rather than
simply against the other side. These issues are stated in question form and should be phrased
in such a way that it showed on its favor side. These issues are very short and not lengthy so
as to make an individual understand the very essence of it. They are not more than one
sentence. The sentence should start with ‘Whether’ and end up with the ‘Question mark’.

Summary of arguments

This is a brief summary of arguments based on the issues raised. It is short introductory of
issues mentioned in your memorial and each argument should not be more than one
paragraph. It only shows what you are arguing for in brief.

Arguments advanced

This is the heart and soul of the memorial. Every part of the argument must be supported by
legal authority. Arguments should be well-organized and convincing. Each point the team
wants the court to consider in deciding the case must be described, the reasons explained with
appropriate references to research materials used, and text citations should be inserted as
frequently as needed. Arguments should address legal precedent and policy issues. Each part
of the argument first addresses the issues supporting one’s own case.

Then, address contentions anticipated to be brought up by the opposing party. The argument
should be written in forceful, active, positive language. It is best to avoid the passive tense.
Headings and subheadings are used to help in clearly organizing the arguments. The same
structure of headings and subheadings should be summarized in the Table of Contents. The
idea is to do everything in terms of both form and substance to help the court understand the
reasonableness and logic of the argument, and thus decide in one’s favor.

Prayer

It is the relief claimed by the parties which should be clearly mentioned. More than one relief
can be claimed in one cause of action. Following the prayer signature of the council must be
stated.

This acts as the ending of the Memorial. This clearly declares what an individual be it a
petitioner or the defendant actually wants from the Court in his favor. This is the relief
mentioning sentence, and in it the basic motive of filing the suit is mentioned through reliefs
claimed.

The above written memorial must be in well versed English. It does not mean a typical type
of English; by reading one should understand and writing should contain legal quality. After
preparing memorial it is very necessary to go through the memorial at least 3-4 times and it is
necessary to write in a correct format no grammatical mistakes, otherwise it will not bring out
the true essence of the memorial.

Memorial writing is an art of writing. For writing a proper memorial one has to be thorough
not only with the facts but also with the laws that have to be applied. If an individual knows
the facts very well but does not know what all laws have to be applied, the facts known will
act as null and void. Before making the memorial or start up with his work one should get
well versed with the particular area of law which is going to be applied because a single
memorial does not contain a single law but a series of laws from various sources. A proper
knowledge as well as patience is needed in making a good or even the best memorial. A
person cannot complete his memorial in one or two weeks but need a months’ time to draft
his memorial.

Ignorantia juris non excusat!