Public speaking is an important skill, especially in today’s world. Students need some aspect of the skills involved in public speaking. Most people approach these, and other public speaking tasks, with varying degrees of trepidation. To that end, Mooting is an excellent opportunity for students to demonstrate and develop public speaking skills. In Mooting, the crucial skill is to get one's point across persuasively, concisely and in an understandable way. Mooting provides the students with a platform to practice and hone these skills in an enjoyable environment.
What is a Moot?
A Moot is a form of legal debate that takes place in front of a panel of judges (and usually an audience) on a particular point of law. The Moot focuses on a fictitious appeal in a civil or criminal case and, as such, there are usually pre-specified grounds on which the debate should take place.
The schools competing this year were KTJ, BSKL, GIS and Charterhouse. BSKL representatives included the following students:
Kiana, Riess, Amar, Rayyan, Moira, Hadi, Jaeden, Jaime, Magali
(thanks to Kangmin and Carys for their support – ex Mooters)
Mooting Competition
There are two teams in a Moot round (claimant and respondent), and counsel for each consists of both Barristers and Solicitors. Although there can be variation on the rules of a Moot, it is the case that Barristers speak and solicitors will assist them during each round. Each team needs to persuade the judges as to the merits of their argument.
The day’s structure began with all students breaking out into their respective prep rooms for approximately 1 hour before the 1st round of hearings. BSKL (claimant) went up against Charterhouse (respondent) with Jaeden, Kiana and Reiss speaking in this round. In the 2nd round, BSKL (respondent) went up against KTJ (claimant) with Amar, Summer and Magali speaking.
Both rounds were very, very close and the judges had a very difficult decision to make.
Our BSKL team (Mooters) needed to present their case under the scrutiny of a panel of arbitrators (the judges). The judges consisted of volunteers who are practicing law or have relevant experience in law.
Each round takes around 50 minutes.Teams allocate their respective times among its first mooter, its second mooter and its rebuttal. At the conclusion of the final argument, the judges will then begin deliberations. When deliberating has concluded and scores have been awarded for the round, the competitors are provided with feedback on their individual and team performance. Each speaker will be marked on a scale of 1 to 25 on his/her overall performance.
The judges base marks on the following criteria;
a. mastering of the facts of the case;
b. style of advocacy, bearing in mind the speaker is not addressing a large audience, but a panel of educated arbitrators;
c. the art of persuasion and marshalling the arguments;
d. ability to deal with the opponents’ arguments, where applicable;
e. knowledge of the law is not essential;
f. ability to deal with arbitrators’ questions;
g. fluency of language;
This final decision consists of two parts, namely a decision based on who “won on the law” i.e., who presented the strongest case in terms of legal reasoning and analysis; and, more importantly, who won based on style. Although no trophies returned to BSKL this time around, our students enjoyed the experience immensely and were definitely up against some stiff competition. There was a lot of admiration and mutual respect from the other teams involved and this was reciprocated by our BSKL students.
We are already looking forward to next year’s Moot.
Mr. Shane Taylor
Be Ambitious Coordinator
