Difference between revisions of "Get Mooting: Rundown of Competitions"

Whether you want to be a solicitor or barrister, you should get involved in mooting while studying law. There are plenty of opportunities on offer, both at City and through the Inns of Court.

City-specific info

Mooting mad...don't forget to check out our Video Guide

During your first few weeks at City, you will receive information about various mooting competitions. These are a mixture of one-off competitions run by barristers’ chambers organised just for City students, and national competitions which can last throughout the year (depending on how far you go).

Chambers Competitions for City Law School students

Maitland Chambers run a one-off 'advocacy competition' specifically for City GDL students early in the academic year. Entrants must submit a brief skeleton argument on a problem set by Chambers. The four best entrants go through to the final and moot in front of a High Court Judge. Crown Office Chambers hold a competition just for City students across all academic programmes. Places are allocated on a first-come-first-serve basis. There are three rounds which run over three successive weeks.

National Competitions

City also enters the two big national external mooting competitions:

OUP/BPP 2010-11 Winners Rory Clarke and Mark Humphreys (City GDL students)

• The OUP and ICCA National Mooting Competition
• The ESU-Essex Court National Mooting Competition

Teams are chosen on the basis of skeleton arguments on moot problems which are sent around in the first term. Teams of between two and four will generally be selected for each competition. Depending on who you draw, these competitions can involve travel to far off corners of the UK (City will cough up the train fare). The early rounds are generally judged by barristers or academics and the finals are judged by High Court or Crown Court judges.

Other specialist competitions we may enter include:

Internal Competitions

Big events within the Law School are the three internal competitions; the GDL Competition, City Scholars Mooting Competition (for LLB, GELLB and LLM students) and the Senior Moot (for all law postgrads).

Both the GDL and City Scholars moots will kick off in late Oct/early November and are open to all. They are judged by ourt star mooters from previous years in the first two rounds, practitioners in the third and a senior lawyer or judge in the final. The Senior Moot is for all law postgraduates and will take place later in 2021. There are a limited number of places which you need to apply for in the Senior. The finals of all three competitions take place at the Supreme Court (Covid permitting).

Competitions to enter independently

Inns of Court

Outside of City, the Inns of Court lay on several mooting competitions throughout the year. Check the mooting pages of your Inn to see when their mooting competitions are held and how to enter. You’ll generally be up against BPTC students – it’s always fun to beat people who supposedly have more experience that you. The competitions at the Inns also tend to be on more interesting areas of law than your standard ‘postal rule of acceptance moot. For instance, in 2009 there were moot problems on clinical negligence, public international law and even space law (ie who owns the moon).

Inner Temple organise an Inter-Varsity Moot which is open to all - team selection usually happens around November. Teams of City students have won this competition on many occasions, including 2016-17 (James Gardner & Edward Gilmore) and 2017-18 (Eno Elezi & Henrietta Boyle). Lincoln's Inn hold an inter-provider moot competition for their students via speed-mooting heats, usually around November. Middle Temple hold the Rosamond Smith Mooting Competition annually for its GDL and BPTC members.

Mooting can be hard work. But it’s a lot of fun and is great preparation for interviews later in the year where you’ll often have to do submissions and presentations.

Times 2TG Moot

This moot is organised by The Times and 2 Temple Gardens and is open to all those registered as students. Top prize is £4000, runner-up gets £2000 and all four finalists have a mini pupillage organised with 2TG. Just find yourself a partner!

FTB Kingsland Cup

The Chambers of Francis Taylor Building run this fantastic moot, open to all undergraduates, GDL and BPTC students. Teams of two can enter, with no bar to the number entering from any one institution. First stage is a written one, with teams sending in two skeletons based on the original moot problem: one seeking permission to appeal, the other resisting.

The eight highest-scoring teams will be invited to the semi-final.

Usually on public, environmental and European law topics, it is a very challenging competition. However City students have had great success in this moot, winning on a number of occasions in the past few years. Find out more via the competition website.

The UKELA Moot Competition

The UKELA moot problem is focused on a relevant contentious issue in environmental law and policy. It is judged by a panel of environmental law barristers and academics. The final round is generally judged by the Supreme Court justice. The event itself is sponsored by a leading environmental law barristers' chambers, No.5 Chambers and Lawtext Publishing, and the prizes include: cash prizes, mooting trophies and a year's subscription to the UKELA.

The moots are free to enter, open to UKELA student members and non-student members, and are divided into two classes: UKELA Student Prize Moot (Junior) for undergraduate/postgraduate and Lord Slynn of Hadley Senior Moot for Bar students/pupils.

The problem has already been released, with a deadline for skeleton submission by midday 1 November 2021. So find yourself a partner and get cracking!

National Speed Mooting Cup

The National Speed Mooting Competition has run for a number of years, and is open to students for a fee. They also run various events and an Advocacy Club. Find out more via their website. There are separate competitions for LLB/GDL and LPC and Bar students.

International Moots

City usually enters one or two international moots a year, these change year on year.

The Monroe E. Price International Media Law Moot Court Competition

The Monroe E. Price International Media Law Moot Court Competitionis organised by the Programme in Comparative Media Law & Policy at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford, in collaboration with the International Media Lawyers Association (IMLA). The moot's aim is 'to expand and stimulate an interest in Media Law and Policy among students from law and other disciplines, who will develop expertise in arguing a case before an international bench of judges from different legal systems and backgrounds'.

The European Law Moot Court Competition

Information on the EHRMCC can be a little sketchy, however they will release the problem before requesting written pleadings for both the applicant and defendant from universities all over Europe before a set number of teams go forward to the regional (oral) finals. A City team (Ben Lewy, Miguel Rodriguez, Douglas Grant and Margherita Cornaglia) won this competition in the 2016/17 academic year, read all about it via Future Lawyer.

The European Human Rights Moot

The Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot

Now in its 26th year, the Vis Moot is prestigious and usually attracts participants from over 60 countries. It aims to 'foster the study of international commercial law and arbitration for resolution of international business disputes through its application to a concrete problem of a client and to train law leaders of tomorrow in methods of alternative dispute resolution'.

You can view problems from past years via the Vis website to give some idea of what is involved.