“Brevity is best because it leaves no room for inattention by listener”- Thomas Jefferson
Abundant opportunities in the form of extra-curricular activities are a part of life at NLUs. These activities help develop analytical and critical thinking potentials of the students. One such activity is Moot court sessions. Moot court sessions are a simulated court proceeding that lays emphasis on promoting skills like court-craft, advocacy and critical reasoning among students. Aspirers who love challenges and arguments should develop a love for mooting during their law school life. Students just by staying in class cannot gain that experience of challenges and excitement they can while mooting.
In this post, CL LST brings a glimpse of moot court session practices at NLUs:
Mooting as a topic
Mooting is regarded as a beginner’s guide. It is a mock trial of the legal proceeding that takes place in the court. Moot court, a simulated arbitral court proceeding at many Law schools is an extra-curricular activity in which students participate. It involves drafting of memorandums and memorials and oral arguments. The modern activity of moot court is known as mock trial which is a simulated bench or jury trial.
Mooting As a practice
The whole sole idea of moot court session is to enable the students to apply Law to a common set of facts and assumptions to which the competitors must be introduced. It neither involves cross examination and presentation of evidences nor the actual testimony of witnesses.
Students participate in various national and International moot court competition held at various reputed institutions. Moot court practice is an all year round activity. Students spend one semester to research and prepare the write-up of the memorials and other semester for practicing oral arguments. In domestic moot court competition students tend to focus on municipal law such as contract law or criminal law where as in an International and regional moot competitions they have to focus on subjects like international human rights law, public international law, international criminal law, international humanitarian law, international maritime law, international commercial arbitration international trade law and foreign direct investment arbitration.
In each moot session, competition two teams are formed each side is represented by two speaker who have to speak for about 10 to 20 minutes covering two to three issues. After the completion of main submission a short round of rebuttal and sure-buttal is conducted in which each teams have to speak in up to 10 rounds. The final stage is the knockout stage. To determine qualification and seeding the scores of the written submissions are taken into consideration, sometimes, even up to a particular knockout stage.
To wrap up, Moot court sessions at NLUs enables a law student to express themselves in front of judges and form critical arguments in a court simulated environment and also helps in enhancing their speaking and analytical skills, which are the grassroots foundation for becoming a proficient lawyer. Interesting? Do share your views about the same in the comments below.
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