What is a moot court?

Artificial courts for the law students are called moot courts. It is a kind of a
debate on the specific case decided by the court or specific subject or issue or
an imaginary case prepared for this purpose. It is an extracurricular activity
organized at many law colleges in which students take part in mock court
proceedings that involve drafting memorials and speaking at oral argument.

It is a great method of learning law and legal skills that require the students to
analyze and argue both sides of a hypothetical legal issue using procedures.
Mooting is considered a specific form of stimulation in which students are asked
to argue points of law before a stimulated court. Moot court, however, does not
involve actual testimony by witnesses or the presentation of evidence, but is
based solely on the application of law to a fabricated legal issue.

The Moot problem is designed to argue before the appellate form because in
most colleges they are conducting National level or International Level moot
courts where judges pretend to belong to the Supreme Court or International
Court of Justice. In fact, the moot problem can also be designed to argue before
the trial court. Practically, it is done rarely.

What does it take to participate in a moot court

competition?
Participating in moot court requires great skill and a great research work.
Without research most submissions of any counsel would be hot air. When I
participated for the first time in my college UPES, Dehradun I did not know
where to start and how to do research work. I was totally caught unprepared.
Many issues arose between my team members because we didn’t know how to
divide our work and how to start, but anyhow I submitted my memorial. The
moment I submitted the memorial I was very happy and afterwards during oral
submission I had a great experience too though I came to know my mistakes. I
had showed my laziness in my memorial and for this reason I was out in
preliminary round only but as we know that “success comes from experience
and experience comes from bad experience.”

Though I had a very bad experience, I learned a lot. My memorial was of a very
high legal quality but I lost my points on editorial technicalities and on my
research work. Considering the fact that the memorials make up 50% of the
total score, making a good memorial is actually critical. A well-written
submission, a logically built-up argument is easier for a judge to understand.
Judges are more likely to pick up counsel’s line of argument and, hopefully,
approve of the submissions. A well written, neat and uniformly presented
document will show the judge that the effort has been put into the case.

Where to get started in a moot problem

The best way to start a memorial is to read the problem as many times as you
can and clear up your basic regarding the topic involved in proposition. A lot of
reading skill is required. Your initial reading will give you a lot of insight as to
how to go about the entire research and then accordingly members can divide
their work.

Firstly, issues should be decided and divided among team members. It is very
important to maintain a constant coordination regarding the research involved
and keep on discussing various lines of arguments. It will make the work easier
for all the team members and then all members can carry out their work
accordingly.

Every moot, like every court proceeding, has two sides, the appellants and the
respondents. Usually you have to prepare for both sides. A Moot team
comprises of, generally, 2 speakers and 1 researcher.
Every moot has 2 aspects you are judged on. They are:

– Written submission called the memorial

– Oral submission