The Moot Court Program develops skills in legal writing, research, analysis and advocacy through the participation in appellate or trial litigation simulations. The program comprises the Foundation Moot Court requirement, in which first-year J.D. students participate, as well as several elective programs for students who want to gain additional experience in their second and third years. In the Foundation program, students research and write an appellate brief and perform an oral argument before a panel of judges, who are generally practicing lawyers or current students. In the second and third years, students have the opportunity to participate in the Stone Moot Court Competition and the Jerome Michael Jury Trials. In the Stone Competition, students write appellate briefs and perform several rounds of oral arguments. The competition culminates in a final round before a panel of federal judges. For Jerome Michael, students participate in several rounds of simulated jury trials. The final round is conducted by a state or federal judge. Students may also participate in several intramural moot court competitions. In recent years these have included Frederick Douglass Moot Court, Native American Law Students Moot Court, Jessup International Moot Court, Environmental Moot Court, European Union Moot Court, Vienna Arbitration Competition, American Constitutional Society Moot Court and Intellectual Property Moot Court.
L6863 AIPLA MOOT COURT (0 pts) P. Genty The AIPLA Moot Court - the Giles Sutherland Rich Moot Court Competition - is named for a member of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit who was the most distinguished jurist in the field of patent law. The 2007 Giles Sutherland Rich Memorial Moot Court Competition is divided into regional competitions followed by a national competition among the top two teams from each region. The Problem usually consists of a unique Intellectual Property question. Students will learn the basics of IP law and the Appellate Procedures of the Federal Circuit. Only two teams of two students from each school are allowed to participate in the Regional Competition.
L6861 AMERICAN CONSTITUTION SOCIETY MOOT COURT (0 pts) The American Constitution Society (ACS) sponsors the Constance Baker Motley National Moot Court Competition in Constitutional Law. In the spirit of its namesake, the annual competition deals with an issue of constitutional law that concerns equality, liberty, and justice. Last year's topic was felony disenfranchisement.
Teams of two write a brief either on the appellant or appellee's side during the Fall Semester. A qualifying competition following the national rules will be held at the start of the Spring semester to determine which CLS teams will attend the Regional Competition in Chicago this year. Students will argue a minimum of three preliminary rounds on the first day, and eight teams will advance to elimination rounds on the final day of the competition. Note that while teams will write either an appellant or an appellee brief, each team will argue both sides at the competition. The two finalists from the L.A. and Chicago Regionals will compete at the ACS National Convention at the beginning of the summer.
L6865 ENVIRONMENTAL LAW MOOT COURT (0 pts) The Environmental Law Moot Court, which is sponsored by the Environmental Law Society, provides students with an opportunity to write appellate briefs and conduct oral arguments based on the environmental legal problem from the Pace Law School Environmental Law Moot Court Competition. The legal issues are drawn from real cases and are argued by three adverse teams, reflecting the multi-party nature of environmental litigation that often involves the government, a public interest group, and a member of the regulated industry. Each participant will write briefs with one or two other students. Students must complete briefs by December. In January and February, each team will participate in at least 2 rounds of oral arguments. Practitioners specializing in environmental law will adjudicate at least one oral argument session. The Environmental Law Society (ELS) will provide student editors for each team to assist participants with briefs and oral arguments.
ELS will also sponsor one team to compete in the competition at Pace Law School, which will take place in February, 2007. ELS will select the team based on a short writing competition in September 2006. Students only have to participate in the extra competition if they want to compete at Pace; it is not a mandatory part of the ELS Moot Court.
L6869 EUROPEAN LAW MOOT COURT (0 pts) G. Bermann The European Law Moot Court Competition is a traditional moot court competition, in which teams of students prepare written pleadings with respect to a problem of European law and present their arguments in oral proceedings before the Court of Justice. The Case is set each year under the auspices of the European Law Moot Court Society.
The objects are to promote awareness of European law, expertise in the practice of European law, and practical experience preparing and arguing cases before the Court of Justice. In addition, the competition provides a forum for the discussion of questions of current legal, social, and practical significance emerging from European integration and the legal and political changes in Europe.
L6679 FOUNDATION YEAR MOOT COURT (0 pts) P. Genty *This course is closed to LL.M.s. As part of the requirement for the Legal Practice Workshop, each student is required to write a brief and argue the case orally. The Foundation Moot Court requirement may be met by satisfactory participation in an equivalent intermural moot court competition, upon prior approval of the Faculty Director of the Moot Court Program.
L6667 FREDERICK DOUGLASS MOOT COURT (0 pts) P. Genty The Frederick Douglass Moot Court Competition is a national moot court competition that focuses primarily on public law and topics of particular relevance to law students of color. Competing in teams of two, competitors must submit briefs in the middle of the fall semester and argue orally for a minimum of three rounds at regionals early in the spring semester. The top three teams from regionals advance to the national competition. Columbia competitors are coached by two upperclass students, including individual support writing the brief and at least a month of live oral argument practice before panels of student judges. The competition is open to all members of the National Black Law Students Association, which does not restrict its membership.
L6680 HARLAN FISKE STONE MOOT COURT HONORS COMPETITION (0 pts) P. Genty This is a three-round elimination competition in appellate advocacy. The first round, in the Autumn term, is open to second- and third-year students who have not previously made the semi-final round. In this round, each student briefs one issue of a two-issue case and argues both sides of that issue in two oral arguments before benches composed of lawyers and judges.
Sixteen competitors advance to the Spring semi-final round on the basis of brief and oral scores received from the Autumn benches. In the semi-final round, students write their own briefs addressing both issues of a new case and, in four arguments, argue both sides of both issues. From the round of 16, the top-scoring four students argue the same Spring case in the final round before a bench of distinguished judges and a large audience. No new brief is required. Finalists may be assigned by the director to either side of either issue.
A prize is awarded for the best oral argument in the Final Round as determined by the judges.
L6867 INDEPENDENT MOOT COURT COACHING (0 pts) P. Genty Upperclass students who have participated as contestants in national competitions of one of the moot court programs listed in this publication are eligible to serve as coaches. Coaches provide mentoring to first year student participants and assist them in preparing for oral argument.
L6678 JEROME MICHAEL JURY TRIALS (0 pts) P. Genty This program offers an opportunity for law students to get personal experience in bringing a case to trial. Second- and third-year students are eligible to participate as lawyers, while first-year students participate as witnesses and jurors. Lawyers handle all aspects of trial preparation, including motion practice, witness preparation, and exhibit selection. In pairs, they present the case at trial to either a federal or state judge, and a jury of their peers returns a verdict.
The competition comprises three trials. The first, in the Autumn, is a criminal trial, and the second, in the Spring, is a civil trial. In the Spring, the lawyers also take depositions. A final trial is held, and a winner of the Jerome Michael Cup declared, near the end of the Spring semester. Only students who have participated in both the Autumn and Spring trials are eligible for competition in the final round.
Participants who have taken Evidence and Trial Practice often find the competition a more rewarding experience, but neither class is a prerequisite.
L6666 JESSUP INTERNATIONAL MOOT COURT (0 pts) L. Damrosch *This course is closed to LL.M.s. *Prerequisite: The approval of the Columbia Society of International Law, based on a written and oral competition conducted in October. *The competition is open to all first- and second-year students. Two-year commitment required.
L6681 AND L6671 MOOT COURT STUDENT EDITOR (0 pts) P. Genty *Open to second-year students selected by the Student Executive Board in consultation with the Faculty Director. Student editors, working in teams of two, are responsible for designing an appellate advocacy problem to be used by first-year students in the spring semester. In the spring the editors each supervise 8-12 students in the research and writing of appellate briefs.
Student editors will also enroll in L6674-Workshop in Briefcraft in the fall term and in L6781-Moot Court Student Editor in the spring term. Editors for the intermural programs that satisfy the Foundation Moot Court requirement also enroll as Student Editors.
In the spring term, student editors counsel and edit several dockets of first-year students assigned to them in the preparation of a brief on the problems devised by the editors the previous term. Each editee should receive at least two personal edits and write at least three drafts of the brief under close supervision of the editor. Editors also prepare students for oral arguments and sit on the benches to which the students argue the cases composed by the editors. During the spring term, editors meet regularly with the Faculty Director to discuss issues that arise in their work with the first-year students. An additional point of Moot Court credit is awarded for participation in these meetings (see Rules for the J.D. Degree, Rule 1.11, page 128). Editors also serve as teaching fellows for the spring semester Legal Practice Workshop.
L6676 AND L6776 MOOT COURT STUDENT JUDGE (0 pts) P. Genty *Students enrolled in the Fall (L6676) must also enroll in the Spring (L6776). Third-year students, with prior service as Moot Court student editors are selected in the spring by the outgoing Student Moot Court Executive Board in consultation with the Faculty Director. In the fall term, student judges will serve as judges in the first round of the Stone Honor Competition. In addition, they will meet regularly with the Faculty Director and assigned student editors to discuss, counsel and criticize the editors’ problems, records and bench memoranda. This is done to assure that the problems presented to the first-year students in the spring are appropriate, interesting, thoroughly researched and well developed.
In the spring, student judges will serve as judges on at least two benches for first-year arguments. In addition, they will serve as bailiffs and clerks in Michael and Stone arguments as required. They will also contribute time and judgment as required by the executive board in the conduct of the first-year arguments and provide assistance to and evaluation of alumni judges. They will perform similar functions as needed in the conduct of the other moot court programs.
L6872 NATIVE AMERICAN LAW STUDENTS ASSOCIATION MOOT COURT(0 pts) The purposes of the National Native American Law Students Association ("NNALSA") Moot Court Competition are to encourage the development of oral advocacy and brief writing skills, and to enhance substantive knowledge in the fields of Federal Indian Law, Tribal Law and traditional forms of governance. The National Native American Law Students Association was founded in 1970 to promote study in these fields and to support Native American students in law school.
L6871 VIENNA ARBITRATION MOOT COURT (0 pts) G. Bermann, A. Garro *Open to 2L and 3L JD students only The Vis Arbitral Moot is an international competition designed to train students in the use of international commercial law and arbitration for resolution of international business disputes. The competition is structured in two phases: the writing of memoranda for the claimant and the respondent and the hearing of oral argument based upon the memoranda - both settled by arbitral experts in the issues considered. The forensic and written exercises require determining questions of contract - flowing from a transaction relating to the sale or purchase of goods under the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods and other uniform international commercial law - in the context of an arbitration of a dispute under specified Arbitration Rules. The teams and the arbitrators are from both common and civil law countries, permitting students to learn from approaches taken by lawyers from other systems.
L6674 SEMINAR: WORKSHOP IN BRIEFCRAFT (2 pts) P. Genty *This course is closed to LLM students. *Required for students who have been designated and are registered as "student editors" for the first-year moot court program under L6681, and open to other students with special permission of the instructor. Student editors, working in teams of two, are responsible for designing an appellate advocacy problem to be used by first-year students in the spring semester. In the spring the editors each supervise 8-12 students in the research and writing of appellate briefs.
In the workshop, students receive intensive instruction and experience in developing appellate case theories, writing and editing briefs and presenting oral arguments. The components of the briefs are dissected, and students write several short segments designed to develop the skills of clear and effective advocacy. Students edit each other's written work under the guidance of the instructor. The semester culminates in the completion of a bench memorandum, which is a substantial piece of writing, involving significant research.
