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Mooting

Mooting is the oral presentation of a legal issue or problem against an opposing counsel and before a judge. It is a valuable opportunity to test your advocacy skills, learn from the questioning of judges and to hear other students debate and reason.

The School of Law runs internal mooting competitions and mock trials allowing students to practice and hone their debate skills within a supportive learning environment. In 2013 the Law School invested in a specially designed Moot Court, based in Headington Hill Hall, refurbishing the room to give a realistic court feel to staged moots.

The School of Law also enters teams into external competitions and has performed consistently well at both national and international level.

In the last five years our students have won the ESU Essex Court National Mooting Competition three times; the Inner Temple Inter-Varsity Mooting Competition twice, and the Oxford Inter-Varsity Mooting Competition twice. As a result of winning both the Inner Temple Inter-Varsity Mooting Competition and the ESU Essex Court National Mooting Competition in the same year, two Brookes GDL teams mooted against each other in the unique Magna Carta Moot in 2015, to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta at the Inner Temple. In addition, our teams have represented the UK at the Commonwealth Mooting Competition twice: once in 2013, and then again in 2017.

“Mooting enabled us to practice a skill essential to furthering our ambitions to become barristers – oral advocacy. And by reaching the Commonwealth finals we had the extremely rare opportunity of mooting in the presence of three of the world’s most eminent judges – the Chief Justices of the Falklands, New Zealand and Trinidad and Tobago. There can’t be many other people able to put that experience on their CV. And, vitally, it has given an enormous boost to our confidence to become effective lawyers in the future.”

Matthew Sellwood, graduate of the Brookes Diploma in Law, and winners of the highly prestigious Commonwealth mooting competition representing Brookes in Cape Town, South Africa, in May 2013.

“The high calibre of students on the Brookes Graduate Diploma in Law course makes for some really stimulating, thought-provoking learning – you come away from classes feeling challenged and invigorated. Plus the small class sizes mean staff really invest time and effort in their students. The coaching and support from Marc Howe was invaluable in getting us through the heats that got us to Cape Town.”

Daniele Selmi, graduate of the Brookes Diploma in Law, and winners of the highly prestigious Commonwealth mooting competition representing Brookes in Cape Town, South Africa, in May 2013.