The document provides information about guest talks on moot courts that were presented by final year law students. It discusses the essential components of setting up a moot court, including having a moot court society, petitioners, respondents, and judges. It outlines the procedure for a moot court, including opening arguments, detailed arguments, and concluding arguments. It emphasizes the importance of lateral thinking, research, case analysis, and court etiquette. The document concludes by noting that moot courts can enhance legal skills and provide benefits beyond law school.

1. Guest Talk On Moot Courts:
Practice and Procedure
Prepared and presented by:
Amar Patil
Adithya Variath
Abhijeet Kumar
(Final Year Students of B.B.A.-LL.B. (Hons.);
School of Law, University of Mumbai)

2. Setting Up A Moot Court
Essentials:
Moot Court Society,
Petitioners,
Respondent,
Judges (Bench v. Single Judge)
• How does mooting take Place?
Essentials: Adversarial system of justice, not
similar to real Courts

3. Procedure:
• Opening Arguments: Setting up your agenda/ proposition/ argument/
outline of the whole brief.
• Detailed Arguments: Addressing the facts by application of law.
Applying the right/just/ convenient law or remedy to the problem
keeping in hindsight the facts of the matter.
• Concluding Arguments: Summing up your arguments by showing how
the party or side you are representing is at a higher pedestal at law vis a
vis the opposite party and hence is entitled to the legal remedies
available at law.
• Concluding Arguments should connect with the prayers asked or argued
in the brief. There is a need of nexus or logical connection to the
arguments advanced and prayer asked before the Hon’ble Judicial
Forum.
• Answering Questions: Answer only when you are certain. Answer
should be to the point and beating around the bush should be avoided.
Do not Bluff. Answer only when asked. Answering a question should not
be used as an avenue to further your arguments. Do not be adamant
but be confident and adamant of your views.

4. Importance of Lateral Thinking in
Moot Courts
• Azaan Amplification Case: Doctrine of
Essential Religious Practices Test (Art 25 v Art
21/Art 19)
• Right to Propagate Religion: Art 25 (St
Stanislaus vs State of MP) (Anti Conversion
Laws)
• Free Speech v Blasphemy Laws: Doctrine of
Harmonious Construction ( Minerva Mills v.
Union of India)

5. Court Etiquette/ Mannerisms:
• Dress Code: As per Part VI: Chapter IV of Bar Council of
India Rules: Rules under Section 49(1) (gg) Advocates
Act, 1961.
• Male: Indian or Western Formals
• Female: Indian or Western Formals (Recent Suggestion
of Justice Indu Malhotra)
• Diligence and Team Coordination
• Delivery of Arguments: Tone and Speech
• Respecting the Opp. Party/ Professional Ethics/
Tradition of Bar
• Citing Judgements: Relevant Portions should be
highlighted, marked and starred.
• Providing a copy of judgement/ relevant extract to the
opp. Party as well as the Judge.

6. Evaluation Criteria:
• Knowledge of Law
• Application of Law to Facts
• Ingenuity and Ability to Answer
• Style, Pose, Courtesy and Demeanour
• Time Management
• Organization

7. Research:
• Researching the facts
• Researching the law
• Researching landmark judicial precedents,
application of judicial decisions to facts only if it is
in consonance with the facts of the case (Stare
Decisis)
• Be thorough with Constitutional Law, Landmark
Verdicts of the Supreme Court and High Courts,
Jurisprudence of the law/statute in question.
• Use of manupatra/ SCC online/ Indiankanoon etc.

8. Case Probe:
• Importance of Judgements in Social Life
• How to read, analyse and interpret a
judgement.
• How to report a judgement (lack of
understanding of judgements in media)
• Contextualizing judicial precedents
• Agreeing/ Dissenting with a Judgement

9. Conclusion:
• Moot Court an Activity which can enhance
research, articulation and knowledge base
• Instills social qualities, self confidence and self
esteem
• Develops the ability of critical thinking
(whether inadequate delays in court hearing
amount to vitiating judicial process and justice
administration- its relation with Art 21)

10. Life Beyond Moot Court:
• Distanced from Reality of Litigation
• Mooting vis a vis real life litigation (Justice
Dharmadhikari’s views)
• Need to evolve the procedure and method of
conducting moot court exercise
• NOT THE END OF THE WORLD !!!

11. WRITTEN SUBMISSION IN A
MOOT COURT COMPETITION

12. RULES FOR WRITTEN SUBMISSION:
• Each Team is required to prepare a Written Submission for
both the parties which is called memorandum.
• Each Team is expected to research for such additional
material on its own. The teams may, under no
circumstance, take advice or assistance of any kind
pertaining to the Case from any other Team in the
Competition.
• The Written Submission shall not, in any way, disclose any
fact pertaining to the identity of the Team or its members.
• Generally, teams shall have to submit 2-3 hard copies of
the Written Submissions for the both side i.e. Petitioner
and Respondents.

13. DRAFTING THE MEMORIAL
The memorial/memorandum is the submission
made by the student. The memorial needs to be
made in proper legal language and needs to
include inter-alia all the facts, the arguments
made by the student along with relevant judicial
precedents to support the argument.
The memorial has a universal format. Memorial
contributes a large amount towards the marks for
the moot. Make sure to add Footnotes to your
memorial.

14. Format - memorial
• Cover Page
• Table of contents
• Index of authorities
• Statement of Jurisdiction
• Statement of facts
• Statement of Issues
• Summary of arguments
• Arguments Advanced
• Prayer

15. Cover page
• The cover page of each written submission of Memorial must have the
following information:
• The name of the forum before which the proceedings are being
conducted;
The title of the competition;
The name of the case;
The Title of the Memorial (“Memorial submitted on behalf of the Plaintiff
or Petitioner or Appellant” or “Memorial submitted on behalf of the
Defendant or Respondent or Respondent”).
The cover pages must be Blue for Plaintiff or Petitioner or Appellant and
Red for Defendant or Respondent or Respondent.
Plaintiff (Blue) v. Defendant (Red);
• Petitioner (Blue) v. Respondent (Red);
• Appellant (Blue) v. Respondent (Red);
• The upper right side of the cover page must contain the Team Code that
shall be assigned to each participating teams during Registration. Names
of Participants, or Colleges or Universities should not to be mentioned
anywhere on the Written Submission of Memorial (you should check the
specific rules regarding this though).

16. Table of contents
• It contains a list of chapters and paragraphs that
are included in the memorial. We can also
mention page numbers of chapters and
paragraphs.
• By mentioning page numbers it will be easy for
the judges and speakers to find out the
mentioned arguments. The argument is the most
complex part of the brief. Therefore, the headings
and subheadings used within the argument
section should also be listed in the Table of
Contents with the corresponding page number.

17. Index of authorities
• In this all the materials which support your argument have to be
added. The authorities of Supreme Court and High courts, foreign
judgments, statutes, and parliamentary debates are mentioned
under the index of authorities. Sources refer through articles, text
books, journals, and websites are also mentioned. This is not only
helpful for the speaker but also useful for the judge and other side
speaker to easily determine what case laws, constitutional
provisions, statutes or other materials are being cited.
• Uniform citation method has to be followed. Citation is crucial part
of memorial; it should be in correct format. Citation helps to
determine from where the certain cases, statutes or other materials
have been taken. It gives easily reference to the judges from where
certain part has been taken.

18. List of abbreviations
• It should contain all the abbreviations used in
your memorial. Each abbreviation should
contain the full meaning and in whole
memorial same abbreviation should be
followed. It is also necessary for the speaker
to know what abbreviations they are citing in
their memorial.

19. Statement of jurisdiction
• Jurisdiction is the most important part of
memorial. The jurisdiction of the court should
be clearly mentioned with the reason. Finding
the proper jurisdiction is very important.
Judges surely ask questions and thereby it is
important to know the jurisdiction of the
court.

20. Statement of facts/ Synopsis of facts
• These statements of facts/ synopsis of facts are an
important part in memorial presentation. It generally
convinces the court about your client’s position and its
point of view. A judge may be well versed in law but he
doesn’t know about the facts of your particular case.
So, a brief summary of facts have to be written clearly
in the beginning of the memorial but generally it
should not be more than two pages.
• Knowing of facts in brief is very necessary, so it is
important for a speaker to go through the facts
carefully and only relevant facts should be mentioned
in your memorial. Facts should not be uninteresting. It
should be in a manner that a person enjoys reading
and it proves on your side. The facts should not be
assumed one; it should be real as given in the
proposition.

21. Statement of issues
• This is a short introductory statement of the legal
issues or points of law involved in the case. It tells the
judges precisely what legal issues the speaker wants
the court to decide. These statements should be
phrased to help one to argue for a particular
conclusion rather than simply against the other side.
• These issues are stated in question form and should be
phrased in such a way that it showed on its favor side.
These issues are very short and not lengthy so as to
make an individual understand the very essence of it.
They are not more than one sentence. The sentence
should start with ‘Whether’ and end up with the
‘Question mark’.

22. Summary of arguments
• This is a brief summary of arguments based on
the issues raised. It is short introductory of
issues mentioned in your memorial and each
argument should not be more than one
paragraph. It only shows what you are arguing
for in brief.

23. Arguments advanced
• This is the heart and soul of the memorial. Every part of the
argument must be supported by legal authority. Arguments should
be well-organized and convincing. Each point the team wants the
court to consider in deciding the case must be described, the
reasons explained with appropriate references to research
materials used, and text citations should be inserted as frequently
as needed.
• Then, address contentions anticipated to be brought up by the
opposing party. The argument should be written in forceful, active,
positive language. It is best to avoid the passive tense. Headings
and subheadings are used to help in clearly organizing the
arguments. The same structure of headings and subheadings
should be summarized in the Table of Contents. The idea is to do
everything in terms of both form and substance to help the court
understand the reasonableness and logic of the argument, and thus
decide in one’s favour.

24. Prayer
• It is the relief claimed by the parties which should
be clearly mentioned. More than one relief can
be claimed in one cause of action. Following the
prayer signature of the counsel must be stated.
• This acts as the ending of the Memorial. This
clearly declares what an individual be it a
petitioner or the defendant actually wants from
the Court in his favour. This is the relief
mentioning sentence, and in it the basic motive
of filing the suit is mentioned through reliefs
claimed.

25. TECHNNICAL RULES OF WRITTEN
SUBMISSION:
• The Written Submission (including the
preliminary pages) shall be typed on A4-sized
paper, with the following mandatory
specifications:
• [i.] Font type: Times New Roman
• [ii.] Font size: 12
• [iii.] Line spacing: 1.5
• [iv.] Body of text: Justified ( Ctrl+J)
• [v.] Margin of 1 inch on each side.

26. • For Footnotes, the formatting specifications shall cite
authorities in the Written Submission using footnotes
following the Bluebook Method of Citation (19th edition)
and the following:
• [i.] Font type: Times New Roman
• [ii.] Font size: 10
• [iii.] Single spacing
• [iv.] No additional space between 2 footnotes
• The Written Submission shall not contain any annexure,
photographs, graphs, diagrams or any other representation
of like nature.
• Footnotes should be limited to only citations or any other
information relevant to the arguments. In no event shall
footnotes contain extra or irrelevant information and in no
case shall footnotes contain arguments.

27. EVALUATION OF THE WRITTEN
SUBMISSION:
• The WRITTEN SUBMISSIONS, generally carries
weight age of 50% marks of a moot competition.
• The memorials shall be evaluated on the
following criteria and any noncompliance with
above criteria may result in penalty of marks (as
prescribed).
• Knowledge of Law and Facts 30 %
• Proper and articulate analysis 20 %
• Extent and use of Research 20 %
• Clarity and Organization 20 %
• Grammar and Style 10 %

28. Ignorantia juris non excusat!