The appellate advocacy and moot court program provides J.D. candidates with the opportunity to write and speak persuasively in the context of a simulated argument before an appellate court. Students may receive up to 7 units of academic credit in moot court work, as follows. For details, see law.scu.edu/academics/academics-moot-court.cfm.
1. Honors Moot Court (398)
Each year the School of Law conducts an in-house appellate moot court competition. Enrollment is limited. Students are selected to participate by the student Moot Court Board based on a try-out application. Students must complete the application on the deadline established by the moot court board. Selected students are permitted to register for Honors Moot Court (HMC) competition in the spring semester.
The first phase of the HMC competition is the drafting of an appellate brief. Students in teams of two research and write a brief based on a problem prepared by the student moot court board. Drafts of the brief are critiqued by faculty advisors. The final briefs are scored for the purposes of the competition by members of the Moot Court Board.
The second phase of the competition is the presentation of oral arguments. To prepare for this phase, the Moot Court Board holds practice rounds, in which students are critiqued by board members. Thereafter, each team argues no less than two times (once on each side of the case) before panels of SCU faculty, local attorneys and judges, generally in courtrooms at the Santa Clara County Court House. Based on the scores in the two preliminary rounds and the score on the brief, teams are selected to participate in advanced single elimination rounds that culminate in a final round in late spring. The final round is judged by members of the state and federal judiciary. Students earn 2 units of non-graded credit for full participation in the competition.
Awards and cash prizes are given to the best brief and best oral advocates. Participants in the HMC competition are eligible to become members of the Moot Court Board.
2. Moot Court Board (399)
The Moot Court Board is a student organization whose primary responsibility is the administration of the honors moot court competition. Student board members select and draft the problem, rank the briefs, participate in critique sessions, organize the competition, arrange for judges, serve as bailiffs during the competition, etc. In addition, board members frequently work with the advocacy portion of the legal writing program.
Students earn from 1 to 4 units for work as members of the Moot Court Board. Credit is awarded based on the student’s position on the Board and the number of hours devoted to academic (as opposed to administrative) activity. Each 75 hours of work will be awarded 1 unit of academic credit. Membership on the board is determined by the board at the end of the spring semester. Participants in the Honors competition are eligible to apply.
Students may earn no more than 7 units of academic credit in all appellate moot court activity (external competitions, HMC competition, Moot Court Board). All units are graded CR/NC.
3. Galloway Criminal Law Moot Court
First year and upper-division students have the opportunity, in the spring semester, to participate in this internal criminal law moot court competition. The competition is supervised by the Honors Moot Court Board. Students receive no credit for participating in the Galloway moot court.
4. Moot Court-External Competitions (396)
Each year the law school enters student teams in a number of inter-school competitions (copyright, trademark, environmental law, international law, etc.). Many of the competitions are formed, and problems distributed late in the fall semester, with briefs due and oral arguments held during the spring semester.
Students selected to participate are eligible to register for moot court external competitions in the spring semester (even though some preliminary work on the brief will be often be done during the fall semester). To receive credit, each team must have a faculty advisor, and each team member must be authorized by the advisor to enroll. Eligibility to participate and receive credit therefore is limited and is based on application and demonstration of ability.
Students selected to participate in a competition are required to share in the drafting of a brief based on a problem prepared by the competition sponsor. Generally, the faculty advisor is precluded from supervising the brief prior to submission to the competition and can provide only general guidance on substantive law and briefing techniques. Therefore, student work on the brief is independent. In addition to the brief, students must participate in four or more practice arguments, as directed by the advisor. These practice rounds are typically critiqued by a faculty advisor. The team then participates in the competition according to the rules of the competition. Typically this requires arguing no less than twice in preliminary rounds.
Students accepted for a competition in the fall, register for external competitions in the spring semester.
The law school generally underwrites all or most of the travel expenses of students selected to participate in approved external competitions for which credit is granted. Students are free to participate in other external competitions, but such participation is considered an extracurricular activity for which no credit can be earned and with no expectation that the school can reimburse travel or incidental expenses.
For more information
- See law.scu.edu/academics/academics-moot-court.cfm
- See posted announcements on the Moot Court Bulletin Board
- See announcements in the Grapevine