Get Mooting: Rundown of Competitions
From Learnmore
Whether you want to be a solicitor or barrister, you should get involved in mooting while on the GDL. There are plenty of opportunities on offer, both at City and through the Inns of Court.
City
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).
Competitions for City Law School students
Maitland Chambers run a one-off 'advocacy competition' specifically for City 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. 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 four national external mooting competitions:
- The ICLR's Annual Mooting Competition,
- The OUP and BPP National Mooting Competition,
- The ESU-Essex Court National Mooting Competition
- London Universities Mooting Shield (undergraduates only)
Teams are chosen on the basis of skeleton arguments on moot problems which are sent around in the first term. Teams of two 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.
Internal Competitions
Big events within the Law School are the 2 internal competitions; the GDL Competition and the City Scholars Mooting Competition (for LLB2, LLB3, GELLB and LLM students). The first round will be at the end of term 1 and the next three rounds (depending on how many students sign up!) will be in term 2. The first two rounds will be judged by members of staff and the third by practitioners. The final will be judged by a High Court Judge..Lord Hoffmann (the Hoffmeister) judged the final in 2009 and Lord Mance in 2010. No doubt another big hitter will be lined up for 2011.
Anyone can enter and so it’s the best way of gaining some public speaking experience, even if you’re knocked out in the first round, though that’s obviously not ideal!
GDL Competition: 2010 Rules
City Scholars Competition: Rules
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 Inner Temple Lawson Moot was won by a City student in 2008, so it's always good to keep up the winning tradition. The competitions at the Inns also tend to be on more interesting areas of law that 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).
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.
Many thanks to Michael Edwards for this excellent piece. Michael was a GDL student at City from 2008-09 and a finalist in the OUP/BPP competition.
International Moots
Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Mooting Competition
The Willem Vis Moot (full name Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Mooting Competition...phew!)is organised by the Association for the Organisation and Promotion of the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot that takes place in Vienna, Austria). The competition is an excellent opportunity to enhance your CV by improving debating skills in the international environment, networking with very high calibre students from the Universities all over the world and developing your expertise in aspects of arbitration and CISG.
Goal of the moot
The Moot is intended to stimulate the study of international commercial law, especially the legal texts prepared by the United Nations Commissions on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), and the use of international commercial arbitration to resolve international commercial disputes. The international nature of the Moot is intended to lead participants to interpret the text of international commercial law in the right of different legal systems and to develop an expertise in advocating a position before an arbitral panel composed of arbitrators from different legal systems. An active social program at the time of oral hearings in Vienna is organized by the Moot Alumni Association with the aim of promoting friendship that can last long after the Moot itself is over.
Venue
The oral hearings will be held in Vienna, Austria, at the Faculty of Law (Juridicum) of the University of Vienna and at the offices of the law firms Dorda, Brugger & Jordis and DLA Piper Weiss-Tessback Rechtsanwalte GmBH. Please note that you must be able to travel to Vienna (Austria) for the duration of the moot. The registration fee for the competition, travel and accommodation expenses will be paid for by City Law School. You will be allocated a small amount for subsistence while in Vienna but all other incidental expenses will have to be covered by individual students.
The Competition
This competition is a very interesting but intense and requires a significant amount of preparation and team work prior the actual event. If you wish to participate you must be prepared to attend regular preparatory meetings, undertake a significant amount of research on Arbitration and International Trade and of course you must be able to travel to Vienna for the oral submissions during the date specified above. City University will only enter one team and the members of the team will be selected on a competitive basis.
Once again in 2010-11 CLS will be offering funding for a team of up to four students to enter the Willem C. Vis. International Commercial Arbitration Moot held in Vienna.
The funding will cover the registration fee for the competition and reasonable costs for travel and accommodation. Entries are welcome from students across the law programmes, including students on the BPTC (in 2009-10 the team captain was a BPTC student).
Students wishing to represent the School will be asked to submit skeletons/memorandums based on the 2011 moot problem and if successful at this stage of selection, will be invited to present their arguments before a panel of staff members. Selection is likely to take place early in November 2010.
The competition will be held just before Easter 2011 and those selected will be offered training by lecturers and practitioners.
For further information please contact the organisers Sanmeet Kaur or Margaret Carran (based at Northampton Square campus) or Simone Start(Co-ordinator of mooting on the BPTC).
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'.
Once again in 2010-11 CLS and the Centre for Law, Justice & Journalism will jointly be offering funding for a team of up to four students to enter the Price Media Court Moot held at the University of Oxford.
The funding will cover the registration fee for the competition and reasonable costs for travel and accommodation. Entries are welcome from students across the law programmes, including students on the BPTC.
Students wishing to represent the School will be asked to submit skeletons/memorandums based on either the 2010 or the 2011 moot problem and if successful at this stage of selection, will be invited to present their arguments before a panel of staff members. Selection will take place towards the latter half of the first term.
The competition will be held around March. Students who compete will be expected to write a report and participate in publicity after the event.
For further information please contact the organiser Claire de Than (based at Northampton Square campus) or Simone Start (Co-ordinator of mooting on the BPTC).