|
[Print-friendly version]
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.
|
