NLIU ARBITRATION MOOT POOL SELECTIONS, 2019

RULES
I. Organisation of the NLIU Arbitration Selections

1. The NLIU Arbitration Pool Selections (“Selections”) will be organised by the

NLIU Moot Court Association (“NLIU MCA”).

2. The Selections consists of the preparation of a memorandum for Claimant, a

memorandum for Respondent and Oral Hearings.

3. Venue: The Oral Hearings will be conducted in Academic Block 1, National Law
Institute University on the 14th and 15th of September.

4. Language: The Selections will be conducted in English.

II. Written Memoranda

5. Each team must submit a memorandum in support of the Claimant and

Respondent’s position on 10th September

 Soft Copy Submission – before 3:59 PM.

 Hard Copy Submission – From 6-8 PM.

6. It is absolutely essential that the memorandum for Respondent be responsive to all

the arguments made in the memorandum for Claimant as the jury judging the
memoranda will be evaluating it based to a large degree on how well it refutes the
arguments raised by the Claimant. However, as the memorandum for Claimant to
which a memorandum for Respondent is to be prepared may not have made all of
the arguments that the team preparing the memorandum for Respondent believes
should have been made, it should also address such issues, indicating that the
specific argument was not explicitly raised by the Claimant [e.g., “although not
raised by this Claimant, a Claimant might have argued/contended/asserted “] In
doing so, care should be taken to present a coherent
argument for the Respondent and not a series of possibly disjointed responses to the
Claimant’s argument.

III. Formatting of Memoranda

7. All rules hereinafter listed are binding on all teams, and teams will face appropriate
penalties for violations of these provisions.

8. Paragraphs must be numbered and references to statements in either one’s own

memorandum or, in the case of the memorandum for Respondent, to statements in
the opponent’s memorandum for Claimant must be to the paragraph number.
 9. The memoranda are intended to be of practical use to the arbitrators in deciding the
dispute. They are not intended to be scholarly dissertations on the relevant law.
Therefore, citations in the memorandum should be limited to those that advance the
argument being made. The List of Authorities must reference to each paragraph in
the memorandum where the case or doctrinal authority is cited. The use of passim
in place of specific paragraph numbers is not sufficient.

10. Care should be taken to write in a formal English style that would be appropriate for
submission to a court or arbitral tribunal. In particular, slang or contractions (aren’t,
didn’t) should not be used.

11. There exists no overall limitation on the number of pages of the Memorandum
except the pleadings of the Memorandum shall be no longer than twenty-five pages
and the statement of facts and summary of pleadings shall be no longer than two
pages each.

12. The font throughout all parts except the cover page shall conform to Times New
Roman, size 12 with 1.5 points spacing between lines including the main body as
well as headers. All footnotes must be in Times New Roman, size 10 with single line
spacing between each footnote.

IV. Scoring of Memoranda

13. A jury will score the memoranda on the basis of the quality of the analysis,
persuasiveness of argument, thoroughness of research, clarity of the writing and
adherence to the elements of style set out above. The jury will take into account
whether arguments are based on facts not found in the Problem or clarifications and
that are not logical and necessary extensions of the given facts. When judging the
memorandum for Respondent, account will be taken whether it is responsive to the
arguments raised by the Claimant.

14. Plagiarism: Any memorandum that includes text from any source, whether the
source was in hard copy or on the web, must set out that text in quotation marks and
give the citation to the source. Failure to give a proper citation constitutes plagiarism.
Plagiarism is a serious matter. The NLIU MCA will heavily sanction teams who are
found guilty of such, and the punishment shall depend on the extent of plagiarism in
question.

V. Oral Hearings

15. Venue: Teams shall argue on behalf of the Claimant on 14th September, 2019 and
on behalf of the Respondent on the 15th September, 2019.

16. Each team will argue twice in the Selections, once as Claimant and once as
Respondent. The team may designate any two members of the team as the speakers
for the round.
 17. Duration of Oral Presentation. The oral presentation of each team is, in principle,
twenty (20) minutes. The team should allocate equitably the time available to the
two individual advocates. It will be the responsibility of the tribunal to ensure that
the teams are treated fairly. As far as possible, teams are requested to stick to the
time limit specified, subject to the discretion of the tribunal.

18. Arguments. Teams are not restricted to the arguments in their written memoranda.
Claimants and Respondents should expect to rely on the arguments given in their
written memoranda or to be prepared to justify why that position has been
abandoned.

19. Questions by Arbitrators. The arbitrators are requested to act during the oral
hearings the way they would in a real arbitration taking into account that this is an
educational exercise. There are significant differences in style dependent both on
individual personalities and on perceptions of the role of an arbitrator (or judge) in
oral argument. Some arbitrators, or arbitral tribunals, may interrupt a presentation
with persistent or even aggressive questioning. Other arbitrators, or arbitral
tribunals, may listen to an entire argument without asking any questions. Therefore,
teams should be prepared for both styles of oral presentation.

20. Exhibits. No exhibits may be used during the oral arguments that do not come
directly from the Problem. Exhibits that are designed to clarify time sequences or
other such matters may be used, but only if the arbitrators and the opposing team are
in agreement. For technical reasons the exhibits may not consist of overhead or
Power Point projections or require the use of a stand.

21. Each team will be evaluated out of 300 marks on each day (100 marks each for the
two speakers of a team + 100 marks for memorial from that side).

VI. Arbitration Pool

22. The formation of the Arbitration Pool will depend on each team’s cumulative score
at the end of the two rounds. This cumulative score includes the total score of the
two Memoranda submitted and the total Oral Hearing score of each team. Ties will
be broken by giving preference to Total Score of the two Memoranda and Total
Score for Oral Hearing, in that order. If thereafter ties cannot be broken, then the
total score for the best speaker in the team shall be compared, and the team with the
better speaker shall be given a higher rank. If a tie exists even after the preceding
procedure, the NLIU MCA shall toss a coin to determine the higher rank.

23. The number of teams in the Arbitration Pool will depend on the strength of
participation.

24. The last date for sending clarifications to the MCA is 23rd August, 2019, latest by
11:59 PM.
25. The interested teams can apply by sending an email to mca@nliu.ac.in titled
“Registration for Arbitration Moot Pool Selections” by 31st August, 2019, latest by
11:59 PM. The last date to retract after applying for the Arbitration Moot Pool
Selections 2019-20 is 2nd September, 2019, failing which, the students who fail to
submit their memorials on 9th September, 2019, will be debarred from all MCA
Activities for a period which may be extended to 2 months.

26. Team Structure: The interested participants are advised to apply by forming a
team of three to five members. The participants can also apply individually and
MCA shall assist in formation of these team members. However, the MCA will not
be liable in case a team is not formed from the pool of individual applicants and
hence advises the participants to make endeavours to apply by forming a team.

27. Extra Member: The MCA may orient an individual slot for three member teams
in open challenge with the consent of the team who is allotted the moot.

28. In case any team which shall have more members in its team than the rules of the
competition permit, the team should come to an amicable solution within itself to
determine the members to represent the University, failing which-

 the moot will be allotted to another team who had applied for the moot,
irrespective of their rank being lower than the team which failed to
determine the members for the moot; or
 if no other team applies, the moot will be oriented to open challenge.

For example – XYZ Moot is oriented with rules of the permitting a team of not
more than three members. Team ‘A’ having five members applies for the said moot
and is not able to determine the three members for the moot. In such a case if Team
‘B’ applies and even though may have a lower rank than Team ‘A’, but fulfills the
requirement of having determined the number of members in consonance with the
rules of such Competition, it shall be allotted the moot. Further, in case, if no other
team had applied apart from Team ‘A’, such moot shall be oriented to Open
Challenge.

29. The NLIU MCA reserves the right to add or subtract to the aforementioned Rules,
and shall ensure that teams be given reasonable notice of any such change.