LAWCTOPUS NATIONAL ONLINE MOOT COURT COMPETITION

RULES

1. Language

1.1 The language of the Competition shall be English.

2. Anonymity of Teams

2.1 Teams shall not reveal their identity in any form, except by means of the
TeamCode allotted to them during the Competition.
2.2 The Written Submissions shall not reveal the identity of the team in any form
and should not bear the logo, name etc. of the University/College represented.
2.3 Any material presented to the Panel should be devoid of any identification
marks / seal of the Team. If any such mark / seal exists, it shall be rendered unfair.
2.4 Any violation of Rule 2.2 and 2.3 shall attract severe penalty or disqualification
as determined by the Lawctopus. The decision of Lawctopus in this regard shall be
final and not subject to challenge.

3. Dress Code

All Participants (Both Male and Female) shall wear Black Blazer, Black Trouser,
White Shirt, and Black Tie (Western Formals).

4. Written Submission / Memorial

4.1 Each Team is required to submit a Memorial on behalf of both the Applicant
and the Respondent.
4.2 Each Team shall send one (1) soft copy of the written Submission for each side
in MS Word Document(.docx) and pdf format, via E-mail at

© Lawctopus Law School | All Rights Reserved

 mootcourse@lawctopus.com , on or before January 15, 2024 to Format for the
same as mentioned in Rule 4.5.
4.3 Please note that NO HARD COPIES ARE TO BE SUBMITTED.
4.4 The copies used during the argument must be the exact copy of submission
made to Lawctopus; else the team will entail disqualification from the competition.
4.5 The Memorials must be emailed with the subject - “Memorials | (Team Code) |
1st LLS NMCC, 2023”. Following the same is of utmost importance.
4.6 The Memorial on behalf of the Applicant must be named as - “(Team
Code)_Applicant” and “(Team Code)_Respondent”.
4.7 Kindly fill your respective Team Code in the place as mentioned above. The
Team Code shall be assigned by Lawctopus after the registration closes.
4.8 The Written Submission from the Applicant and Respondent shall consist of
the following mandatory heads:

a) Cover Page;
b) Table of Contents;
c) List of Abbreviations;
d) Index of Authorities;
e) Statement of Jurisdiction
f) Statement of Facts - The Statement of Facts should remain faithful to the official
facts and present them in a reasonable way, but not a true copy of it.
g) Statement of Issues
h) Summary of Pleadings;
h) Arguments Advanced/Pleadings Advanced; and
i) Prayers

NOTE: The Table of Contents must be hyperlinked for the ready reference of the judges.
The Written Submission (including the preliminary pages) and soft copy submission shall
be typed on A4- sized paper, with the following formatting specifications:

4.9 Text Guidelines for Memorial Body:

Font type: Times New Roman

Font size: 12
Line spacing: 1.5
Body of text: Justified

4.10 For Heading:

© Lawctopus Law School | All Rights Reserved

Font Type: Times New Roman
Font Size: 14

4.11 For Footnotes:

Font Type: Times New Roman
Font Size: 10
Single Spacing
Paragraph Spacing: 0
Body of Text: Justified

4.12 For Cover Page:

Font Type: Times New Roman
Font Size: 16

4.13 Table of Contents, List of Abbreviations, Index of Authorities, Section

Headings and footnotes shall be typed Single Spaced.

4.14 Teams shall cite authorities in the Memorials using footnotes following ILI
citation style. Footnotes should be limited only to citations and must not contain
extra information or arguments.

4.15 The Team Code must be ascribed on the top right corner of the cover page.

4.16 The written submission shall nowhere mention any particulars of the team,
except the team code. There must be no mention of Name, Contact Number, Email
id, University name etc.

4.17 The Written Submission shall not contain any annexure, photographs, graphs,
diagrams or any other representation of nature.

4.18 Memorials shall not in any way identify the Team, its members, the law
school, faculty, university or other participating institution except with the Team
Code as assigned by Lawctopus.

4.19 Following colour scheme shall be followed for the cover page of the Written
Submission:

© Lawctopus Law School | All Rights Reserved

Appellant: Blue
Respondent: Red

4.20 The total length of the pleadings, including the section headings,
conclusion/prayer for relief, and any associated footnotes, must be no longer than
35 pages. The Arguments Advanced section must be limited to 20 pages only. Each
Issue must be given equal weightage.

4.21 The Compendium has to be mailed at mootcourse@lawctopus.com at the time

of memorial submission. The Compendium should only be one PDF file, for easy
accessibility of the judges. The Compendium file must be named as “(Team Code) |
Compendium”

4.22 The Subject line of the Compendium must be “Compendium | (Team Code)”.
We shalL intimate about the Compendium submission dates in due course.

5. Draw of Lots

5.1 Each team will be provided with a Team Code. The draw of lots shall take place
after the formal registration and each team shall be assigned a side (either
Applicant or Respondent) for the Preliminary rounds.

5.2 The Draw of Lots for the subsequent rounds shall take place with prior
intimation to each Team. One member from each Team must be present during
the Draw of Lots.

6. Oral Pleading

6.1 The oral pleading shall be conducted via Zoom.

6.2 Any form of scouting during the completion is strictly prohibited and shall
entail instant disqualification of the Team.

6.3 The order in which Teams shall submit their Oral Pleadings throughout the
Competition shall be: Speaker 1 for , Speaker 2 for Applicant; Speaker 1 for
Respondent, Speaker 2 for Respondent.

© Lawctopus Law School | All Rights Reserved

 6.4 Before the start of the oral rounds, each Team shall inform the Court Officer
regarding the order of speaking as well as allocation of time between themselves
and the time reserved for Rebuttals.

6.5 If a Speaker speaks for more than the time reserved for him/her, the extra time
used by such Speaker shall be deducted from the time allotted to the second
Speaker of that team. If the second Speaker exceeds the time allotted to him/her,
such time exceeded shall be deducted from the time reserved for Rebuttals.

6.6 Compendium can be submitted to the Court Officer prior to the oral rounds
which will be submitted to the judges at their discretion. Any further material may
be passed at the discretion of the Panel. Team members can pass research
materials to the speaker in a discreet manner.

6.7 Any team which violates any of the Rules with respect to the oral rounds may
be penalized. The decision of the panel shall be final in this regard.

7. Structure of the Competition

The Competition is divided into:

A. Preliminary Rounds;
B. Quarter-Final rounds;
C. Semi-Finals round;
D. Final round

Note: The Researcher's Test shall take place on January 16, 2024. Members of the
Team registered as the Researcher shall only be eligible for the test.

7.1 Preliminary Round

7.1.1 Each oral round will be for a period of 30 minutes, (including Rebuttals),
wherein each Team will be allowed 15 minutes. Any extension of time beyond this
specified period is subject to the discretion of the Panel.

7.1.2 In case of any Team fails to appear in an oral round, the round shall be
conducted ex-parte and the scoring shall be done as if the defaulter team had been
present and arguing.

© Lawctopus Law School | All Rights Reserved

7.1.3 No Team shall reserve more than 5 minutes for Rebuttals. The winner of each
court-room will be decided on the basis of the scores awarded by the judges in this
round and the marks awarded by them.

7.1.4 At the end of preliminary rounds, the top eight teams will qualify for the
quarter finals on the basis of their wins. In case of a tie, the marks of the memorials
will be considered in addition to the scores of preliminary rounds. The team with
the higher score will advance to the Quarter Finals.

7.2. Quarter-Final Round

7.2.1 On the basis of combined score of memorials as well as oral pleadings, top
eight teams will qualify for the quarter- final.

7.2.2 Quarter-final round of competition will consist of 40 minutes for oral

pleadings. Appellant and Respondents are each allotted 20 minutes. Each mooter
shall speak for a minimum of 5 minutes. This round will be a knock-out round and
four teams will qualify for the semi-final round.

7.3 Semi-Final

The semi-final round of competition will consist of 60 minutes for oral pleadings.
Appellants and Respondents are each allotted 30 minutes. Each mooter shall speak
for a minimum of 10 minutes.

7.4 Final round

The final round of competition shall consist of 60 minutes of oral pleadings.

Appellants and Respondents are each allotted 30 minutes. Each mooter shall speak
for a minimum of 10 minutes.

7.5 Additional Rules:

7.5.1 Any extension of time for presenting arguments beyond the specified period is
subject to the discretion of the Adjudicating Panel.

© Lawctopus Law School | All Rights Reserved

 7.5.2 No Team shall reserve more than 5 minutes for Rebuttals.

7.5.3 The winner of each court-room will be decided on the basis of the scores
awarded by the judges in this round.

7.5.4 At the end of preliminary rounds, the top eight teams will qualify for the
quarter finals on the basis of their wins.

7.5.5 In case of a tie, the marks of the memorials will be considered in addition to
the scores of preliminary rounds. The team with the higher score will advance to
the Quarter Finals.

7.5.6 The quarter final, Semifinal and the final rounds shall be knock-out rounds. A
Team will be credited with a win in the quarter final, Semifinal and the final
rounds, if their total marks are higher than their opponent team.

7.5.7 In case of a tie, the total oral marks of the Teams in the previous round(s) will
be considered. The Team with the higher score will win.

7.5.8 The Oral Pleading Session would be marked on a scale of 100 per Panelist and
would be evaluated on the following grounds.

8. Scoring

8.1 The scoring criteria for Memorials shall be as follows:

Application of Facts - 25 marks

Reasoning - 25 marks,
Use of Authorities and Precedent - 25 marks
Understanding Law and Procedure - 15 marks
Presentation - 10 marks

8.2 The scoring criteria for Oral rounds shall be as follows:

Response to questions and Articulation - 20 marks

Use of Authorities and Precedents - 20 marks
Reasoning in the Application of Principles - 20 marks
Application of Facts and Advocacy skills - 20 marks

© Lawctopus Law School | All Rights Reserved

 Court Craft and Demeanor - 20 marks

9. Miscellaneous

9.1 Lawctopus reserves the right to modify, amend, change or repeal any of the
Competition Rules at any point of time.

9.2 Lawctopus shall communicate any changes made in the Competition Rules to
the Teams.

9.3 Lawctopus reserves the right to take decisions on any matter not mentioned in
the Competition Rules.

9.4 Teams and team affiliated spectators shall avoid all unnecessary noise,
outbursts, or other inappropriate behavior which distracts from the argument in
progress.

9.5 Lawctopus shall not be responsible for any loss or slow internet connection
during the competition. All the participants are requested to arrange a sound
internet connection at their end.

9.6 Each Team participating must have a stable internet connection with a
minimum of 20 mbps speed. Speed of your internet can be checked via this link -
https://fast.com/

9.7 The date for seeking clarification on the moot proposition is Dec. 30, 2023. The
clarifications shall be released by Jan. 04, 2024.

9.8 Lawctopus reserves the right to make the Final call in case of any dispute that
arises during the Competition.

© Lawctopus Law School | All Rights Reserved