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Guide To Mooting

Tips for preparing and deploying your moot submissions.

Here are some tips for preparing and deploying your moot submissions:

  1. You should make sure that your skeleton argument is clear, relevant and concise. It’s called a skeleton for a reason! Stick to the points you’ve been asked to address.
  2. Be familiar with mooting conventions – practise how to: introduce and refer to your opponent; address the Judge; cite a case; and close your submissions. If you don’t, when you’re nervous and mid-moot, you’re likely to trip yourself up.
  3. Practise your submissions numerous times, including with your mooting partner. Ask them to give you feedback, and to point out where your argument is unclear or unconvincing. Get them to pretend to be the Judge and to ask you difficult questions so you can practise how you might respond.
  4. When it comes to the moot, be able to summarise your argument in a couple of sentences. If you can’t – you’ve probably not understood it properly!
  5. Most people want to speak more quickly because they are nervous. Try writing ‘slow down’ in big letters at the top of your submissions, and speak more slowly than you think you need to. This can make you seem more confident than you are!
  6. Always start with your best point. Otherwise, if you run out of time you may never get to it.
  1. Structure your arguments. At the start, give the Judge an overview of your submissions, so he or she understands where you are going. As you go through your submissions, let him/her know when you are moving on to a new point. It shows you are in control of what you are saying.
  2. Be prepared for judicial intervention. Think about likely questions and what your response is going to be. It is always impressive for a candidate to be able to answer a point from the Judge by reference to their skeleton argument, or to say ‘I have two/three responses to that point’ and then to go through each one in turn.
  3. Be flexible. If the Judge wants you to deal with a point out of sequence always be ready to adapt. Similarly, if the Judge is with you on a point (or clearly thinks the point is terrible) then move on!
  4. Be familiar with all aspects to the moot. It may be that the Judge will ask a question that is more relevant to your teammate’s submissions. If this is the case you can explain that your teammate will deal with that issue, but ideally also say in very brief outline what your team’s position is.

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