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Special Interest Areas

Honors Moot Court Programs

Santa Clara’s Honors Moot Court (HMC) 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. The HMC program operates in two distinct components, internal and external, each of which are managed by separate student organizations and their respective faculty advisors. For details, see law.scu.edu/academics/academics-moot-court.cfm.

1. Honors Moot Court – Internal Competition (HMCI) (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-run Internal Moot Court Board based on a written application combined with evaluation of the applicant’s performance in the oral and written components of the Advocacy course. Students must complete the application on the deadline established by the internal moot court board. Selected students are permitted to register for Honors Moot Court – Internal Competition in the spring semester.

The first phase of the HMC Internal 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 Internal Moot Court board. Faculty advisors read and critique brief drafts. Members of the Internal Moot Court Board read and score the final briefs for the competition.

The second phase of the competition is the presentation of oral arguments. To prepare for this phase, the Internal 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 scores 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 Internal Competition are eligible to become members of the Internal Moot Court Board the following year.

Students may earn no more than 7 units of academic credit in all appellate moot court activity (external competitions, the HMC Internal Competition, Internal Moot Court Board or External Moot Court Board). All units are graded CR/NC.

2. Internal Moot Court Board (399A)

The Internal Moot Court Board is a student organization whose primary responsibility is the administration of the Honors Moot Court Internal Competition. Student board members select and draft the problem, organize the competition, evaluate the final briefs, participate in critique sessions, 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 Internal 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 outgoing 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 Internal Competition, Internal Moot Court Board, or External 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 Internal Honors Moot Court Board. Students receive no credit for participating in the Galloway Moot Court.

4. External Moot Court Board (399B)

The External Moot Court Board is a student organization whose primary responsibility is the administration of Honors Moot Court External (HMCE) competitions, including those sponsored by the High Tech Law Institute and the Center for Global Law & Policy, and also oversees participation in the ABA competitions (Appellate Advocacy, Client Counseling and Negotiations) which are sponsored by the Student Bar Association. Outside the sponsored competitions, the HMCE student board members select competitions to which to send teams, and for all competitions, select the competitors for each team, and to the extent required, arrange for faculty coaches to work with each of the teams. Competitor selection requires designing and implementing a selection process which may incorporate evaluation of candidates’ performance in the Advocacy course. In addition, board members frequently work with the Advocacy portion of the legal writing program.

Board members work with the faculty advisor and coaches to draft try-out problems as needed, rank the applications or briefs, evaluate oral argument try-outs, and consider other relevant criteria to select competitors and assign teams to particular competitions. Additionally, with each selected team, board members assist as needed with organizing and participate in the team’s practice sessions, arrange for mooting sessions, videotaping, and practice judges. Board members also compile historical records of each team’s participation, including collecting score sheets, submitted and winning briefs, and lessons-learned memos from that year’s team.

Positions: Director, Assistant Director/Finance Chair, and Competition Managers (CMs) (approximately 3 competitions managed per CM).

Students may earn from 1 to 4 units for work as members of the External 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 executive board is determined by the outgoing board and the faculty advisor at the end of the spring semester. Participants in prior external honors moot court competitions are eligible to apply for membership on the External Moot Court Board.

5. Honors Moot Court-External Competitions (HMCE) (396)

Each year, the law school enters student teams in a number of inter-school, or external, moot court competitions hosted by law schools and other organizations around the country and internationally (Constitutional law, criminal procedure, copyright, trademark, environmental law, international law, etc.). Participation in certain subject matter-competitions is sponsored by the Law School’s High Tech Law Institute and Center for Global Law & Policy. Students are advised to have completed the law school course in the underlying or related subject matter before, or in the semester during which, they compete in a given competition. Many of the teams are selected, and problems distributed late in the fall semester, with briefs due and oral arguments held during the spring semester. However, some competitions are held during the fall semester, and require team selections earlier in the school year, or over the summer.

Students selected to participate are eligible to register for moot court external competitions in the semester during which the oral arguments are held, (even though some preliminary work on the brief will be often be done during the prior semester). To receive credit, each team must have been selected by the HMCE Board, 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 the oral argument component of a competition are generally required to also share in the drafting of a brief based on a problem prepared by the competition sponsor; in limited instances, a student may serve solely as a brief writer.

Each team will be assigned a faculty or adjunct coach, who assists with the team’s preparation for competition to the extent to which the competition rules allow. Generally, the faculty coach is precluded from supervising the brief writing 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, but the submitted must comply with the competition’s rules. In addition to the brief, students must participate in eight to twelve or more practice arguments, as directed by the team’s coach. These practice rounds are typically critiqued by the team’s coach and by the practice judges attending the rounds. Teams are also required to video-tape and review their practice sessions prior to attending the competition.

The team then travels to the location of the competition with the coach and participates in the competition according to the rules of the competition. Typically this requires arguing no less than twice in preliminary rounds at the competition’s location.

The law school generally underwrites the approved travel and related incidental expenses of students selected to participate in approved external competitions for which credit is granted. Students may opt to earn 2 units of non-graded credit for their full, good-faith participation in the competition, awarded at the discretion of the faculty advisor.

Students are also encouraged to limit their participation to one external competition per academic year, and to limit their other extra-curricular and outside activities during the competition periods.

Related opportunities for extra-mural competitions include the American Bar Association competitions (Appellate Advocacy, Client Counseling and Negotiations) which are sponsored by the Student Bar Association. Students may opt to earn up to 2 units of non-graded credit for participation in these competitions; where a written work product is not required, students may earn no more than one unit.

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

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