Moot Competitions
THE UPPER YEAR MOOTS
The U of A Upper Year Mooting program provides students with a unique opportunity to develop advocacy and other lawyering skills. Selection to the moots is determined on a competitive basis. Course credit is available for all of the moots. Following the selection of the appellate moot teams, a number of practice rounds (usually between three and six) will be held prior to each moot court competition. These rounds will be judged by practitioners, faculty members, and, if they are available, members of the judiciary, who will assist the moot teams in honing their skills.
Many of the competitions will be held outside of Edmonton. Travel expenses and accommodations are paid for by the Faculty through contributions made to the Faculty’s fund raising campaign.
Descriptions of the appellate advocacy moots follow. Please check the eligibility requirements carefully before you complete the entry form.
Many of the moots provide prizes or other awards. Please see the description of the individual moot competitions for details. Prize specifications are based on the most current donor information; prize specifications are subject to change by the donor.
To view the Moot Court Manual, click here.
CREDIT FOR PARTICIPATION
Students may obtain credit for participation in the various moots. Participation in the Clinton J. Ford Moot, Alberta Court of Appeal, Client Counselling (Regional) Competition, Gale Cup, Laskin, Canadian Corporate/Securities Law Moot, Jessup Moot, The Kawaskimhon National Aboriginal Moot, and the Western Canada/National Trial Moot carries 3 credits through Law 598. Students shall not be permitted to moot in the same moot twice save in exceptional circumstances. The arbiter of "exceptional circumstances" is the Vice Dean who, in deciding the issue, must consult with the coach/supervisor of the moot at issue. Moreover, for practical reasons, any student who, in exceptional circumstances, is given permission to moot a second time, must receive permission in advance of the selection round so that this permission may be relayed to the selectors.
To obtain credit the student must produce a factum, a memo, a trial book or some other written work that can be marked. The grade given for the course is on the University 4 point alpha-numeric system. Unless otherwise noted, fifty percent of the mark is based on written work, the remaining fifty percent on the evaluation of the mooter's progress in developing advocacy skills at both the practice round and competition stages.
Students who are selected to a team must register in the appropriate course using the Bear Tracks registration system prior to the Winter Term Registration Deadline. Registration must be accompanied by the completion and filing of a Moot Court Competition Registration Form (pink) with the Admissions Office by the first business day of February. If you are selected for a team after the Winter Term Registration Deadline, please see Kim Wilson in the Admissions Office.
In planning a timetable students should keep in mind that there is no guarantee that they will be selected for a moot court competition. Therefore, a student should register in some other course which may be dropped if the student is selected for a moot team.
Moot course credit is available only in the second term, and the addition of 3 credits for moot participation cannot result in a total number of credit hours in excess of the term maximum of 18 hours or the yearly maximum of 36 hours.
The usual University rules regarding plagiarism apply to the written work. Plagiarism may result in disqualification of the team and disciplinary action will be brought against any student who violates this rule.