A Moot Court is a law competition, in which Universities from all over the world participate, and which consists of the simulation of a trial on an international law legal topic . The School Law School of the University of Navarra offers its students the opportunity to participate in one of the two teams that will represent the school in the Moot Courts held at the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot (Vienna) and the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition (Washington).
This initiative is made possible thanks to the collaboration of the School Law School with law firms, which, through the fund for the promotion of excellence, support this activity because they see it as an excellent training opportunity.
Participants, who must be grouped into teams, can be students enrolled at School of Law from any university in the world, which they will represent throughout the competition.
For the preparation of the cases, the team can have one or more coaches to guide the investigation and to develop the team's communication skills, verbal expression, etc.
A Moot Court normally consists of two phases:
1. Written phase of document preparation. Once the team is registered, the case is sent to submission . From that moment on, a period of between 3 and 5 months is opened to prepare all the documentation required for the case (lawsuit, response to the lawsuit, pleadings, etc.).
2. Oral phase. During the oral phase, the different teams compete against each other, either as plaintiffs or defendants, defending their arguments before a court. All teams must have prepared both defences as, during the course of the competition, the court may apply for which team is defending both the defendant and the plaintiff.
The development of the oral phase is based on the organisation of several groups of teams that compete against each other. From each group , the first or the first and the second team qualify for the next round or the final, depending on the number of participants.
The tribunal is composed of lawyers or judges (from various countries) of recognised experience and prestige in their field. During the development of the tests, several tribunals will be constituted to streamline and avoid conflicts of interest in the competition (members of a tribunal can participate as coaches in a team).
Moot Court competitions have a tradition of more than 50 years in the Anglo-Saxon world. From the beginning of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition to the present day, numerous different competitions have emerged, each in a different area of law.
The mission of these competitions is to foster a spirit of curiosity for knowledge and research in the legal world, to bring the practice of law closer to students and to promote synergies and social relations between participants and members of the Court.
It is a general Commercial Law international arbitration event held annually in Vienna. Every year more than 250 universities from all over the world participate in it.
Held in Washington, it is a simulation of a case before the International Court of Justice (Public International Law case). It is the oldest and one of the most prestigious moot courts. Every year more than 120 universities from all over the world participate in it.