Mooting guidelines introduction, Lecture notes of Law of Obligations

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Introduction to

Mooting

What is Moot Court?

A moot court is an extracurricular

activity in which participants take part

in simulated court proceedings, based

on hypothetical Moot problem which

usually involves drafting memorials or

memoranda and participating in oral

argument.

Where to get started in a Moot

Court?

• 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.
• 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.

Basic of Moot Court

• 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

Cover page

Cover page must include :

• 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”).

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• 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).

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 etc are mentioned under the index of authorities. Sources refer through articles, text books, journals, and websites are also mentioned.

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 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.

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 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’.

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.

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• 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.

KEY POINTS

• 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.

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• 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.
• It is a tedious task and mooting altogether involves many of such tedious tasks.
• This was just about the Memorial writing, but for insights about various other aspects of Mooting, this revolutionary online course is second to nothing.