Mooting Competitions

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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: LWB417 and LWB418.

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 very connected by a videolink. The competition was run again in 2007 and will be organised by Murdoch University in 2008.

Dr Ros Macdonald is also the coordinator for the Commonwealth Moot which is an invitation-only moot open to representative teams from regions of the Commonwealth.

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 March 2007,
• the International Maritime Law Arbitration Moot - which was won by a QUT team in 2006
• the Sir Harry 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.