Moot Court Competitions and their Role in Practice Oriented Training of Law Students

Abstract

The paper explores the issues that are rarely dealt with by Russian Universities and their Faculties in the context of the methodology and general theory of legal education, whereas the issue of mooting (legal competitions) is rather well covered under the common law system. The primary goal of any moot competition is to facilitate both the study of the subject matter (e.g. international commercial law as in the annual Vis moot competition) and the existing dispute resolution processes (e.g. arbitration as the dispute resolution process of choice for international business disputes). Thereby, mooting trains future law leaders in dispute resolution. The most common approach is that a perfect team of mooters needs an equal combination of both outstanding legal arguments (both in oral and written forms) and effective presentation skills. Based on our coaching experience and the discussions we have conducted with our colleagues and students involved in mooting we show that there are numerous different views among moot competitions participants, judges, coaches, and the most experienced “real” professional advocates as to the most effective advocacy tools. Mooting and clinical work represent the key skills-oriented approaches to training lawyers. However, mooting prevails in the context of globalisation of legal education and the development of cross-cultural competences.