‘Moot Court Competitions’ happen to be one of the most exciting learning experiences that lingers on the college memories of students of law pursuing their 5-year BA-LLB or a 3-year LLB course from any of the top law colleges in India. In order to do well in these competitions so that as a law student you can carry home pleasant winning memories, it is advised that you prepare well for these competitions. With a view to help you do that, presented below are six long-standing rules of doing well in a moot court competition which you will surely find helpful during your BALLB and LLB course duration.
Lesson number one is that, you don’t only need good and competent people on your team, but you really need a team with which you can work. In the mooting systems where you don’t get to choose your teammates but they are more or less decided due to ranks in internal selections, this can be a big issue. You should therefore look out because it has been found that a lot of people could not achieve their potential due to this one reason.
Lesson number two is that, you must figure out what the moot asks of you. Much of it depends on who are the judges. Check on the questions like: Are the judges in the moot predominantly academicians, professors, veteran lawyers, and judges, or young Turks with some mooting experience? Does the moot brief the judges about the parameters on which speakers are to be judged? Obviously it will be difficult to find out the details of the current year, and you must rely on the information you have of the previous year’s events to get an idea about the event in which you are going to participate.
Some moots are completely about presentation skills. Legal knowledge is more or less presumed. Some in the team who has extensive debating experience can think that the moot is more or less like a policy debate, albeit judged by lawyers and the subject matter of debate being legal.
Details may vary greatly from moot to moot, but primarily, you can appeal in the different way to different sort of judges. If he is a practicing lawyer or arbitrator, he will have different criteria on his mind when he listens to your arguments. He will pay a lot more attention to your presentation skills and formal expressions. If there is a professor on the board, he might be looking for something else. He might be happier if you draw support from a theory that he admires. Some, you can apprehend and prepare for, but some of this will have to be done on feet.
Lesson number three is that, play the public interest card. This works in moots like magic. No matter whether it is arbitration or WTO panel moot, the fact remains that everyone loves a mooter who is able to establish that the public interest is on her side. Even though public interest may be difficult to side with in a real case if hands of the judge are tied by law, but in a moot, there is no such limitation that prevent judges from giving the court to you.
Lesson number four is that, prepare a speech and time it. You should know how much time you are going to spend on which argument. This may not matter much if competition you are facing is not strong. But when it is, time management becomes a crucial skill that is going to make a lot of difference. One should never go to a moot without preparing a speech, and having every argument timed to seconds.
Lesson number five is that, you must be able to show a structure in your arguments, so that it helps the judges in following what you are saying. In a real case, this may not be so important, but in a moot court you are surely going to pick up some points for it.
The last lesson is that; one must know how to answer questions. Questions needs to be answered precisely without circumlocution or distraction. Everyone hates to be handled. Do not tiptoe around the question; even if you succeed to do so without an objection from the bench, the judge will hate you for it. Or worse, he may think that you are so thick that you didn’t even get the question right.
