Mooting and Mock Trials

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The Law School is actively involved in promoting mooting skills by providing opportunities for students to take part in a number of competition moots each year.

What is a Moot?

Students can be involved in various kinds of mock, or practice, court hearings:

• A mock trial would simulate a trial at first instance where witnesses present evidence and are cross-examined and the students acting as lawyers can make submissions as to whether evidence is admissible, which witnesses should be treated as most credible, and, given certain findings as to the facts, what law should apply to the facts.
• A moot, on the other hand, is a practice appellate court. It is assumed that a trial has already been held , and that someone is appealing against the judge's decision in the earlier trial on a point or points of law. It involves argument about just what the law is, in areas where that is constestable. Arguments are drawn from precedents and, where no precedents apply, from general considerations of principle and policy. It is different from a debate because the audience is a bench of judges who do not necessarily listen in silence but instead interrupt the mooters to ask questions to probe the strength of their arguments.

Each year teams will be selected to represent QUT at the external mooting competitions. This will be done by try-outs in first semester in April so that teams can be finalized by May in time for the start of the competitions. There may also be a need to ask for expressions of interest in second semester in October for other competitions. If you have an enquiry about the process please contact the Mooting Coordinator Mark Thomam.thomas@qut.edu.au or telephone 3138 5199.

Solicitors, barristers, judges, former students and mooters can be involved in mooting at QUT in a number of ways, including judging moots, helping with practice moots and coaching teams. Please contact the Mooting Coordinator for further information.

Mooting Competitions

QUT Mooting Teams have long had a reputation for being strong competitors in mooting competitions. Mooting skills are essential for students wishing to be admitted to the bar at some stage in their careers. Mooting teaches students the art of courtroom procedure and debate and how theory is applied.

There are two mooting electives in the Law School curriculum to ensure students get academic credit for moot participation and to provide further opportunities to develop courtroom skills: LWB418 and LWB419

Moots organised by QUT Law School, alone or with others

The Shine Lawyers Torts Moot, generously sponsored by leading Brisbane law firm Shine Lawyers, is held annually in the QUT law school in August. This moot is open to law schools from Australia , New Zealand and the South Pacific.

The Pan-Pacific Moot, inaugurated by QUT in 1994, is an annual invitation-only moot between QUT, the University of Waikato , the University of Papua New Guinea and the University of the South Pacific. Teams compete for the Sibley- Hill Cup named after the academics at QUT and the University of Papua New Guinea who set up the first moot. The venue moves between the four universities on a four year cycle. It is held in semester two each year.

In September 2006 the law school participated in an International Virtual Moot with three other law schools in Australia, University of Melbourne, Murdoch University and the University of Canberra, and the Marshall-Wythe School of Law and Courtroom 21 at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg Virginia. Each team argued the case from their law school's electronic courtroom, the judges sat in another location, and all were connected by a video link. The competition is now organised by Murdoch University and was won by QUT in 2008.

Other moots that QUT competes in

• the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition,
• the International Intellectual Property Moot at Oxford - which was won by a QUT team in 2007 and 2009,
• the International Maritime Law Arbitration Moot - which was won by a QUT team in 2006
• the Lexis-Nexis Gibbs Constitutional Law Moot,
• the National Family Law Moot,
• the Australasian Law Students Association Moot,
• the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Moot and
• the International Humanitarian Law Moot.