MOOTing!

This is my first post ever so I remain slightly apprehensive as to whether anyone will see and/or reply to this.

I am applying to study Law at University in 2015 and then hope to continue my studies to become a barrister. One of the activities that is highlighted as being extremely beneficial is 'MOOTing'. However, despite my best efforts, I can not find a MOOTing organisation at anything less than an undergraduate level.

For this reason I would like to set up a small and informal MOOTing society who would meet perhaps once a month. Because it would be the only one around for secondary school students (that I can see) it would look excellent on a personal statement and would really give you an edge over other candidates.

I have not finalised any details yet as I am unsure as to whether there will be any/much interest but would be more than happy to do this should there be sufficient interest.

I am in contact with various persons in the legal profession (primarily Barristers) who have said that they would be more than happy to 'teach me the ropes' - so to speak - so that I could potentially teach others.

It really would be an excellent opportunity and a really excellent thing for your University application.

Let me know if you would be interested.

Annabel.

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Reply 1

Wilder Airs

Hello Annabel,
I would most definitely be interested in this - I, like you, have been scouring the web, and the two places I've seen that have done any form of mooting at all has been private sixth form colleges, and universities. It's really disappointing to see the sheer lack of opportunities available to us in this area, when in is essential, especially if you wish to go into the courts.
Again I'd definitely be interested to help you with this, and depending on location to come up to a few moots myself :smile:

Cheers,
Wilder.

Reply 2

AnnabelR

Hello Wilder,

Thanks for taking the time to read and reply to this. I completely agree, I was amazed at how few opportunities there are considering how highly it is thought of. That would be wonderful! I'm hoping to receive a bit more interest and then I will attempt to arrange it so that as many people as possible can attend. If you know anybody else who may be interested or can think of any way to inform others then please do help with conjuring up some more interest!

Thanks again for replying, hopefully I'll see/speak to you soon about it.

Annabel.

Reply 3

Miracle Day

Look up the Citizenship Foundation's Mock trial competition and ask your school to participate.

Reply 4

AnnabelR

Original post by Miracle Day

Look up the Citizenship Foundation's Mock trial competition and ask your school to participate.

Hi,

I am doing this among various other debates and public-speaking competitions however from my research I have found that, owing to the fact that MOOTing is a very common practise when studying Law at University, it is considered even more valuable in bettering university applications and giving you an edge when you begin to participate in MOOTing at an undergraduate level.

Thank you for your suggestion though!

Reply 5

AvocatDuDiable

Fantastic idea! Getting experience before going to university would be hugely beneficial to any hopeful law student.

Also, this might sound nitpicky but it could avoid you embarrassing yourself. It's just 'mooting', not 'MOOTing'.

Reply 6

AnnabelR

Original post by AvocatDuDiable

Hello and thank you for your reply!

If you know anyone who would be interested then please do let them know about this!

Oops! I will remember that in the future, when I had originally typed 'mooting' it looked a bit odd to me - my bad!

Thank you.

Reply 7

Norton1

Please don't post in multiple threads about your own threads, it's extremely irritating. Enjoy your MOOTing.

Reply 8

AnnabelR

Original post by Norton1

Please don't post in multiple threads about your own threads, it's extremely irritating. Enjoy your MOOTing.

I was merely trying to get a measure of interest and raise awareness of it.

I'm so, so, so sincerely sorry for the abundance of irritation that I have caused you through my utterly unthinkable actions...

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 9

Lucilou101

Original post by AnnabelR

No need to get sarky?

Reply 10

djfls

Original post by Lucilou101

No need to get sarky?

Surely her sarcasm is justified when the post she was replying to was highly sarcastic in itself.

Reply 11

Lucilou101

Original post by djfls

Surely her sarcasm is justified when the post she was replying to was highly sarcastic in itself.

Hmm suppose it depends on how you read it, I can see your point :P
Although to be honest the post she was replying to could be argued as justified because she was being irritating :wink:

Reply 12

Voovist

I'd be very interested, however, we all live in different areas of the UK. How would we be able to practice mooting long distance? :smile:

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 13

AnnabelR

Original post by Voovist

I'd be very interested, however, we all live in different areas of the UK. How would we be able to practice mooting long distance? :smile:

Posted from TSR Mobile

Hello, thanks for expressing an interest! I'm not entirely sure at the moment, this post was more to gauge interest. However presuming I get a bit more interest this is something that I will have to try and sort out. Before one of the Barristers that I know teaches me how to moot I can't be sure whether video conferences would work, although once I work out whether it will be possible I will try and contact everyone who has expressed an interest. Failing that we could try and find a location which is an equal distance from everybody, however this is probably a bit optimistic. I will get back to you when I have worked it out.

Thank you,

Annabel.

Reply 14

Wilder Airs

Original post by AnnabelR

I'd suggest making it less of a regular thing (unless the video conferences work out), and more of an event - finding a venue that'd be happy to do it, giving out the dates, etc, and going from there. (just my opinion :3)

Reply 15

Gallifreyan95

This is an intriguing idea.

I have witnessed a Moot before - between the Universities of Cumbria and Edinburgh last year at the University of Cumbria's campus.
It was really rather interesting, I can't say that the Year 12 me understood everything they were arguing, but I got the gist of it.

Since then I've taken part in two school moots, and I've also been asked back to my old school (being a former year 13 at the moment) to judge a moot they are holding next week.

Its a shame really that mooting seems to be rather underplayed when compared to Debating, which is also very enjoyable, although more appropriate to a wider audience.

But yeah, very interesting idea!

Reply 16

roh

Original post by AnnabelR

Aside from logistics I would say your biggest problem is going to be how you research the mooting problems. Our unis pay for us to have access to the law reports through Westlaw and Lexis Nexis, but these cost hefty sums of money to subscribe to. You'll have to find some other way of accessing the case law, and academic articles, for free, and I've not heard of anything like that out there.

Also, judges (barristers, academics, err judges) aren't going to be that easy to lay your hands on, unless you just use undergrad mooters from a local uni.

It's not a bad idea, but I suspect you may find there are practical reasons why mooting is a largely undegrad and BPTC/LPC student thing.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 17

AnnabelR

Original post by roh

You were pretty indiscriminate. You did post in the current law students thread (which has a big 'not for applicants' dislcaimer on the first page), did you not think we might have mooting opportunities anyway and aren't too fussed about how our UCAS forms look, given some of them were submitted in 2008 or earlier?

Aside from logistics I would say your biggest problem is going to be how you research the mooting problems. Our unis pay for us to have access to the law reports through Westlaw and Lexis Nexis, but these cost hefty sums of money to subscribe to. You'll have to find some other way of accessing the case law, and academic articles, for free, and I've not heard of anything like that out there.

Also, judges (barristers, academics, err judges) aren't going to be that easy to lay your hands on, unless you just use undergrad mooters from a local uni.

It's not a bad idea, but I suspect you may find there are practical reasons why mooting is a largely undegrad and BPTC/LPC student thing.

As I mentioned in the initial post, this was my first thread and I wasn't to know that posting in multiple threads about the same thing is not the 'done thing'. Additionally, I appear to have missed the 'not for applicants' bit which is why I posted there.

I may not have been very clear earlier, I already know a good number of both judges and barristers and the ones who I have talked to about this have already said that they will be more than happy to get involved/help so this really isn't a problem. The idea of asking undergraduates at a local university is an interesting idea which I will probably look into if there is enough interest - thanks!

With regards to case files etc. this is something that I would have to look into, as I have said before, this thread was to see if anyone would be interested, I will look into things like this if enough interest is generated.

I see what you're saying but the fact that some schools hold mooting competitions (unfortunately as far as I can tell they are only for students from their school) suggests that it is possible to moot prior to university.

Thanks for your feedback.

Reply 18

AnnabelR

Original post by Gallifreyan95

Hey, thanks for replying!

Yes, I think that the 'level of mooting' - so to speak - would be slightly lower than the moots at university but still both interesting and beneficial!

Ahh, that all sounds very intriguing, what were the school mooting competitions like eg. was the format similar to that of a university moot?

I agree, I can see the issues with mooting before university but I believe that, should it be possible, it would be a great thing to take part in along with debating and public-speaking.

Thank you!

Reply 19

AnnabelR

Original post by Wilder Airs

Yes, I think that probably would be the best way to do it. The only problem would be everyone being taught how to moot as I'm not sure whether people would want to travel a significant distance merely for the purpose of being taught to moot. Hmmm, maybe the teaching is something that could be done by video conference and then hold the occasional event? I'll further consider the logistics of it all if I get a bit more interest!

If you've been to an MUN before I was thinking it could be similar to that, where everyone does some prep before (not too much obviously) so that any time spent together could be used for the actual mooting instead of spending time doing stuff that could've been done in a couple of hours at home eg. preparing their argument or something of the sort.

Anyway, like I said, I'll try and sort this out if enough people want to take part.

Thanks again!