Before You Start Mooting

The good news is that you do not need to be a great speaker or a legal expert before you start. Mooting is a learned skill. But the more groundwork you do beforehand, the more you will enjoy your first competition rather than just surviving it. Below are the main areas to build, with practical steps for each.

Understand the court and the kind of moot

Every moot imitates a real court or tribunal, and each one has its own rules, vocabulary, and style. Arguing before the International Court of Justice feels very different from arguing before a national supreme court or an arbitral tribunal.

How to develop this:

• Find out which court your moot simulates. Read the competition’s website and rules. Is it the ICJ, the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court, a domestic appellate court, or an arbitral panel?
• Read about the court’s structure and purpose. Start with the court’s own website, which usually has a plain-language “How the Court Works” or “Basic Documents” section.
• Learn what the court can and cannot do. What kinds of cases does it hear? Who can bring a claim? What remedies can it order?
• Watch real hearings. Many courts publish video recordings of their hearings (the ICJ, the ECtHR, and the UK Supreme Court all do). Notice how judges ask questions, how counsel respond, how formally people speak, and how they structure their points.
• Read one or two famous judgments from that court, not to memorize them but to see how judges’ reason and what a final decision looks like.

Read the statute and the rules of the court

The statute (or constitutive document) of a court is its rulebook. It tells you what law the court applies, who can appear, and how it operates. In a moot, you are expected to argue within these limits.

How to develop this:

• Get the primary document. For the ICJ, for example, this is the Statute of the International Court of Justice and the Rules of Court. For the ECtHR, it is the European Convention on Human Rights and the Rules of Court.
• Read it in layers. First, skim the whole thing to see its shape. Then read the key articles slowly. For the ICJ, Article 36 (jurisdiction) and Article 38 (sources of law) are essential.
• Make a one-page summary in your own words. Write down: What does this court do? What are its sources of law? What are its jurisdictional requirements? What remedies can it give?
• Highlight the provisions you will cite often. In practice you will cite the statute in nearly every memorial.
• Read the competition rules separately. These are different from the court’s statute. They set word counts, deadlines, speaking times, scoring criteria, and penalties. Many teams lose marks simply by ignoring them.

Build your legal foundations

Mooting rests on ordinary legal knowledge. You do not need to know everything, but you should be comfortable with the basics of the area your moot covers.

How to develop this:

• Learn the core subject. If the moot is on international law, review the sources of law, state responsibility, jurisdiction, treaty interpretation, and the use of force. If it is on human rights, review the main treaties and key cases. Use a good textbook rather than random websites.
• Learn how to find authorities. Practice using legal databases, the court’s own case law search, and academic journals. Learn to tell a primary source (a treaty, a judgment) from a secondary one (an article, a textbook).
• Learn how to cite properly. Your competition will usually require a particular citation style, such as OSCOLA, Bluebook, or the court’s own style. Learn it early, because messy citations cost marks and credibility.
• Practice reading cases efficiently. For every case, learn to find the facts, the issue, the holding, and the reasoning. Write a three-line summary of each case you read.
• Keep a case notebook or spreadsheet. Record the case name, citation, key principle, and a useful quote with its paragraph number. This becomes your research bank.

Improve your English (if you are not a native speaker)

If the moot is conducted in English and it is not your first language, this is worth deliberate effort. The goal is not perfect or fancy English. It is clear, simple, accurate English that a judge can follow at speed.

How to develop this:

• Read legal English daily. Court judgments, law journal articles, and legal news. Notice how sentences are built and which phrases recur (“it is submitted that”, “the Court held”, “by virtue of”, “in light of”).
• Build a personal vocabulary list. Whenever you meet a new legal term or phrase, write it down with its meaning and one example sentence. Review it weekly.
• Prefer short sentences. Long, tangled sentences are hard to speak and hard to follow. Break complex ideas into clear steps.
• Practice writing. Write short legal paragraphs on any topic and ask a teacher or friend to mark them. Focus on grammar, clarity, and structure.
• Listen actively. Watch hearings, legal podcasts, or lectures. Pause and repeat sentences aloud to train your ear and your pronunciation.
• Learn the polite formulas of advocacy. Phrases such as “May it please the Court”, “With the Court’s permission”, and “I am grateful for the question” become natural with repetition.
• Do not worry about accents. Judges care about clarity and pace, not about sounding native.

Develop your presentation and speaking skills

Public speaking is the part that scares most beginners, and it is also the part that improves fastest with practice.

How to develop this:

• Start small. Speak to a mirror, then to a friend, then to a small group. Record yourself on your phone and watch it back. It is uncomfortable but extremely useful.
• Learn to structure a speech. Use a simple pattern: opening, roadmap, main points, conclusion. Each main point follows- claim, authority, application to the facts, mini-conclusion.
• Control your pace. Most beginners speak too fast when they are nervous. Practice speaking slowly and deliberately, with pauses between points.
• Use notes, not a script. Write short headings or bullet points on one or two sheets. Reading a script makes you sound flat and prevents you from responding to the bench.
• Practice eye contact. Look at the judges, not at your paper. Move your eyes between them, as you would in an ordinary conversation.
• Watch your body language. Stand tall, keep your hands steady, avoid fidgeting, and use calm, natural gestures.
• Work on your voice. Breathe from the diaphragm, project without shouting, and vary your tone so you do not sound monotone.
• Time yourself. Rehearse with a stopwatch until you can finish within the limit without rushing.
• Study good advocates. Watch how experienced counsel open, transition, and conclude. Borrow techniques that suit your own style.

Learn to handle questions from the bench

Answering judges’ questions is the signature skill of mooting, and it can be practiced separately.

How to develop this:

• Practice “question drills”. Ask a friend to interrupt you randomly with questions while you present. Learn to pause, listen, answer, and return to your point.
• Learn the answer pattern. Answer the question directly first (“Yes, my Lord, and the reason is…”), support it with authority, then link back to your argument.
• Predict hard questions. For every submission, write down the three toughest questions a judge could ask, and prepare answers.
• Learn to handle “I don’t know”. Rather than freezing, say something like: “I am grateful, my Lord. I do not have a case directly on point, but the closest authority is X, which suggests…”
• Stay calm and polite. A hostile or tricky question is a test of composure, not an attack.

Learn to write a memorial

Many competitions require a written submission before the oral rounds, and their quality usually affects your overall score significantly.

How to develop this:

• Study sample memorials. Many moot competitions publish winning memorials from past years. Read them to see the structure: cover page, table of contents, index of authorities, statement of facts, issues, summary of arguments, arguments, and prayer.
• Practice writing a legal argument. Use the structure: heading (your proposition), rule, application, conclusion.
• Learn to write persuasively but accurately. Never mistake a case or a fact. Judges check, and credibility is everything.
• Edit ruthlessly. Cut repetition, long sentences, and weak points. Word limits reward concision.
• Check formatting and citations. Create a checklist from the competition rules and review it before submission.

Learn to work in a team

Most moots are team events, and a team that works well together will outperform a team of brilliant individuals who do not.

How to develop this:

• Divide the work clearly. Agree on who researches which issue, who drafts which section, and who speaks on which point.
• Set internal deadlines well before the real ones.
• Share research in one organized place (a shared drive or folder).
• Practice together. Run mock rounds where teammates play the judges and the opposing counsel.
• Give and accept feedback kindly. The goal is to improve the team’s argument, not to win internal debates.

Build the habits that make everything easier

• Manage your time. Moots run alongside normal studies. Create a weekly schedule and protect your practice time.
• Stay curious and read widely. Follow legal news and current developments in the area of law your moot covers.
• Seek a mentor or coach. A senior student, an alumnus, or a lecturer who has mooted before can save you months of trial and error.
• Attend a moot orientation or workshop if your university or organization offers one.
• Be patient with yourself. Almost everyone is nervous and awkward at first. Improvement comes quickly with repetition.