An indispensible tool of training the law students for the future responsibilities, moot courts are today part of law teaching where students learn the skills necessary to be a successful lawyer
To be a successful lawyer, apart from a law degree, one needs to be equipped with certain basic lawyering skills like ability to analyse the issues involved in a litigation, ability to do research and to draft, ability to select relevant provisions of an act/acts and also the precedents which support one’s client’s case and above all a good oral argumentation skill and loads of confidence . Moot Court is such an extra curricular activity undertaken in law colleges to impart these essential skills to the law students.
Realising the inherent limitations of the scholastic teaching at the colleges, which is far-far away from the real life situations and essential requirements to become a successful lawyer, moot court competitions have become one of the most important extracurricular activities undertaken by the law colleges. Today moot courts have become an important parameter to judge not only the lawyering skills of the students but also the overall standard of academic facilitiesand overall opportunities offered by a law college. It is quite common to find that almost every law college, apart from its infrastructure and faculty, boasts of the opportunities it provides to its students to participate in moot court competitions and proudly informs us about the various moot court competitions its students have participated in and what all prizes they have won in those competitions.
A moot court is an all comprehensive simulated court proceeding where the participants are required to undertake the real court activities, like drafting briefs, also called ‘Memorial’ in the moot court related parlance, as well as presenting oral arguments, when a moot problem is given to the participants well in advance. This helps the participants to hone their lawyering skills like researching, drafting, oral argumentation, court mannerism etc. and gives them a taste of the things they are expected to handle in future as practising lawyers.
Moot court competition may be of the ‘domestic’ level which basically has the moot problem related with application of ‘ Municipal Laws’, while an ‘international’ moot competition revolves around an issue related with Human Rights Laws, Public International or International Humanitarian laws.
In a typical moot court competition the participating law students receive in advance a moot problem, which among other things include the facts of the ‘case’ and if the case is an appeal case, the opinion/judgment of the lower court against which the present challenge lies and which is to be argued in the appellate court by the participants. The case or problem for the moot court may be taken from an actual case or may even be any vexing socio-legal issue confronting the society.
The judges in such a moot court are usually practising lawyers with experience in appellate courts or law professors, who judge ( usually also award marks) the memorials or the written statements which invariably include the index of authorities, information about the dictionaries, websites and statutes referred, case laws, statement of jurisdiction, statement of facts, statement of issues, pleading in summary, pleading in advance and prayer.
Apart from this the judges also judge and award marks on the basis of the oral arguments presented by the appellant as well as respondent team in a given fixed tim . The oral arguments are the real essence of any moot court competition as it is said that a moot is not won and lost on the legal arguments, but on the advocacy skills of the participants.
Further a participant is also judged on the basis of his/her behavior during the presentation of the oral arguments and the manner of answering the questions and clarifications asked by the judges and also his/her awareness of the rules and the etiquettes of the court or what it is called as ‘court mannerism’.
The judges have freedom to ask for any clarification or question, on the facts of the case in hand or the statute or the precedent on which a participant is relying, in order to judge the overall understanding of the participant about the issues and the law and his/her lawyering skills.
In any good moot court, usually the judges at the end of it, share their observations regarding the performance of every individual participant in their court. This works as a great feedback and helps the participants to further improve their lawyering skills.
A moot court provides all the opportunity to the participants to indulge in the ‘real life’ court experience and learn before hand the nitty- gritties of the court proceedings.
A winner at these competitions is held in high esteem not only by the peers but also by the seniors in the profession and reflects upon the seriousness of the participant toward his career.
Many moot competitions also award the winners a good amount of cash reward and/or opportunity to intern with a leading lawyer or a renowned law firm, which works as a great motivating factor for the students to participate.
Most of the students who have participated in a moot court competition vouch for the benefits of participating in a moot. Their usual observation about the moot court is that it helped them to master the substantive law with which the problem was related as well as they were able to understand the procedural aspects of litigation and all this had a practical and significant importance and gave them an edge over other fresh law graduates, who never bothered to participate in such ‘extracurricular’ activities, when it came to get a placement in a law firm or when they approached any senior lawyer to work as an assistant.
This perception is corroborated by the real life experience as we find that majority of law firms and senior advocates prefer those students who have actively participated in moot courts as these fresh law graduates need minimum training in areas like problem solving, communication, research, draft, issues related with professional ethics, responsibility and court mannerism, etc. They prove to be an instant asset for the firm or the senior as the case may be.
Etymologically moot court refers to ‘mock court’ in which law students argue hypothetical cases for their practice. Here, budding lawyers, learn their role in dispensation of justice. With the advent of National Law Schools and new curriculum formulated by BCI, these practices became integral part of law teaching.
In moot court, students need to prepare written memorials, have to argue their case from given side, often selected by lot system followed by oral arguments. Moot court is generally presided by two faculty members, expert in the subject; however, in some of the National Moot Court Competitions this place is usually occupied by senior lawyers or by honorable judges of high courts or Supreme Court.
Limited time and strict vigilance of presiding judge; mooters need to perform in a much disciplined manner. Their score depends on not only their awareness in the tools and techniques of law research, case citation, logical drafting and oral presentation but also quickness in appreciating objections and questions raised by presiding judge as well as opponents during rebuttal. Lastly, perfection in court room mannerism, curtsey and humbleness are not only learnt in this process but this makes them perfect in their future advocacy.
However, despite all these enumerated benefits, the moot courts are not devoid of certain frailties and limitations. For example, the moot courts are still considered to be an ‘extracurricular’ activity many students are not serious about them and it happens many times that a small group of students who take active interest in participating in moot courts keep on hogging the limited opportunities available at prestigious competitions, restricting the benefit to a particular ‘class’ of students.
Further the success of a moot court also depends upon the resources of the conducting college/university/faculty. Its an open secret in India that most institutions even lack basic infrastructural facilities and always complain of lack of funds.
In such a scenario to conduct a good moot court competition, which is an ‘extracurricular’ activity, does not sound as a good idea for many of such institutions.
Again the success of a moot court also depends to a large extent on the quality of lawyers/law professors who volunteer to act as judges at such competitions. Since judging an event is a time consuming and a free service, many senior and experienced lawyers, due to the obvious reasons, do not usually come forward to offer their services and therefore mostly the judges are relatively less experienced lawyers or professors with no experience in the field of litigation.
Usually a moot court problem is in the form of a short story, which lacks all the details like the original complain, affidavits and complete judgment etc. on the basis of which an appeal is preferred in real life situations and also the moot problems are usually much complicated appellate issues which involve interpretation of Constitution or overruling of the existing settled ‘precedent’, which a fresh pass out may never come across in his/her initial years of practising.
Moot courts are also accused to be ‘unreal’ and far removed from the real court room realities as less importance is given to the written submission or the memorial’ while at the same time the judges are primarily focused on the oral arguments, which is not the case in a court of law where the written submission, if not more, is given almost equal importance and plays a crucial role in getting a favourable decision.
In the final analysis, it could be safely concluded that moot courts are an indispensible tool of training the law students for the future responsibilities, provided they are more inclusive, more close to real life cases and court proceedings and given due importance to the written statements and there is equal participation of the experienced lawyers as judges. We have to keep in mind the fact while commenting on the efficacy, relevance or limitation of moot courts, “we don’t throw the baby out with the bath water”.
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