Issue 154

Mooting semi's

12th March 2007

Mooting is a long standing tradition which involves law students taking on each other in a mock trial. We spoke to Catrin Blake the Mistress of the Moots to find out more about the competition.

Mooting is set up using two teams, each with a senior and junior debater. One team are the appellants, the other is the respondents, they are each given ten minutes to argue their case and then they are given time to respond back to each other.

The game is played in a league system, with points awarded to the teams for the best arguments. The emphasis is on arguing the law and not the facts, the overall winner will be the team who has argued the best and not necessarily the team that won the debate.

The main idea of the competition is to give an example of real court life to undergraduates and helping them to gain valuable experience. It is especially helpful to those who wish to become Barristers as it gives them advocacy experience, which is needed if you want to become a Barrister.

The semi-finals will be taking place on 14 March at 3pm in the Law school, the finals will take place on the following Wednesday in the same place.

This is the first year that the law society has introduced Mooting, an idea forwarded by Catrin herself. She hopes that next year they will be able to enter external competitions and hopefully win a few.

The society itself is very active having just returned from a French ski trip over the Easter period, to holding pub golf. As well as the social side, the society is very keen to give career support to its members, by organising networking dinners to gain contacts within the industry. Also they hold office hours every Monday between 2pm - 4pm and every Friday between 1pm - 3pm in the Law school between the undergraduate and postgraduate sections of the building.

If you would like more information about the law society then you can contact them at: uws_lawsociety@hotmail.co.uk

Dawn Lewis