Moot Court training is a time tested and most dependable method and the best tool available for equipping a law student with the attributes of an effective and successful professional lawyer. Watching the performance of some of the best among the trained law students in the National Moot Court competitions, several sitting and retired judges and top lawyers have openly acknowledged and commented that they are at par or even better than the professional lawyers at the top rung. Systematic, disciplined and regular training and planning of a law student coupled with his innate abilities would convert a law student into a professional lawyer during his law school days and it is the most effective method for developing most of the lawyering skills identified by the MacCrate Report 1992 (U.S).
Moot Court competitions and selections give opportunities to the law student to get exposure at the national and international levels with judges, reputed lawyers and academicians. Philip .C. Jessup International Law competition at Washington D.C, USA and Stetson International Environmental Law Moot Court Competition at Florida, USA are some of the prestigious International competitions which give the law student international exposure. Selections to such competitions are highly competitive.
The quality and standard of a law school and its top ranking students are easily discernible from the various national competitions of moot court, moot arbitration, client counselling etc, where the best of various National Law Universities/Law Schools compete with the best of other Law Schools/Colleges. It is a matter of pride and prestige that teams from Kerala Law Academy have won in competitions several times and with consistency over the teams of students from the National Law Universities/law schools and other top law schools, proving that the top ranking students of the Academy are among the best in India besides the high quality of training imparted by the Academy.
The Moot court Society gives special training to students to participate in renowned Moot Court Competitions organized at the national and international levels. It is a matter of credit for the society that the students trained by the society and the Academy have won laurels in several such competitions including the internationally renowned Philip.C.Jessup International Moot Competition held annually in Washington D.C., USA.
The following students from the Kerala Law Academy, were selected after national rounds to represent India in the Philip C.Jessup International Moot competition held at Washington, D.C., U.S.A.
- 1994-Pretty Elizabeth Punnoose and Nandini Morris
- 1996-Dimple Mohan and Sindhu Santhalingam
- 1997-Thushara James and Rekha Pillai [They stood 4th at the international level]
- 1999-Sagee S.G and Rahima.A
- 2000-Niyatha Srinivasa and Lekshmi Devi Somanath.
The following students from the Kerala Law Academy, were selected after national rounds to represent India in the Stetson International Environmental law competition held at Florida, U.S.A.
- 2002-Mariyam Nissar and Laxmi N.Menon
- 2003-Linda Francis and Anupama
- 2005-Maithri Srikant and Laxmi Mohandas
- 2010-Janapriya and Deepa
Further, since 1997, students from the Law Academy have continuously and regularly represented India at the Willem C.Vis International Annual Moot Arbitration Competition at Vienna, Austria. Students from the Academy have also represented India at the Louis M.Brown International Client Counselling competition at Dunedin, New Zealand in 2001 and in the International Maritime Moot Arbitration in Australia and Singapore in 2002 and 2004 respectively. In 2005, two students from the College have represented the Second Annual WILLEM C. VIS (EAST) International Commercial Arbitration Moot Court Competition at City University of HongKong. This year also two students have been selected to represent India in the Stetson International Environmental Moot Court competition to be held in Florida USA. Besides, every year, the students of the Law Academy participate in several Moot Court Competitions at the National level, winning most of them.
Moot Court provides the law student the skills to write a legal memoranda, the legal research skills to identify the problem and its issues and analyse them, the legal writing skills, the skills to find out legal issues, the law, the ability to interpret facts and law, the skills to know how, where and the way to find out the law, judicial decisions, legal materials, and the skill to use the law library and the ability to identify standard and quality legal materials and the opportunity to go deeper into substantive law.
On orative skills, it enhances the speaking ability to levels of excellence and improves the language, its style, fluency and clarity in speaking. It refines the speaking language and allows to master the techniques of modulation in voice and speech control, develops impressive speaking techniques, court behavior, manners, formalities, politeness, persuavasiveness, methods of addressing the court, ability in using legal and court language, court craft and managing the court while dealing with questions from the judges and techniques in clarifying their doubts, enhances sensibilities, reflexes, agility and alertness. Successful utilization of such opportunities provides the chance for developing into a complete lawyer during student days at the law school.
The speakers in the Moot Court are popularly referred to as Mooters. The most often mistake committed by the mooter in responding to questions from the judges is the ‘beating around the bush’ technique, which is quite unprofessional and naïve. Hard work, dedication and deep research into materials and substantive law for several days are inevitable to become a successful mooter. Expressions like, “I plead ignorance” “sorry, I don’t know” and awestruck expressions by mooters to questions from the judges expose the failure, lack of study and the lack of quality of the student participating in the moot court. There is no shortcut to become a successful mooter, only work and hard work alone and indepth and substantial study and research will help the mooter to withstand and succeed the rapid round of questions being fired at him by judges in the reputed national and international selections.