How to Draft a Good Moot Court Memorial

By Guest Post - November 27, 2016

This article was written by Surbhi Agrawal from UPES, Dehradun. You can share your
write ups on law school by sending an email to ramanuj@ipleaders.in

What is a moot court?

Artificial courts for the law students are called moot courts. It is a kind of a debate on the
specific case decided by the court or specific subject or issue or an imaginary case
prepared for this purpose. It is an extracurricular activity organized at many law colleges
in which students take part in mock court proceedings that involve drafting memorials
and speaking at oral argument.
It is a great method of learning law and legal skills that require the students to analyze
and argue both sides of a hypothetical legal issue using procedures. Mooting is
considered a specific form of stimulation in which students are asked to argue points of
law before a stimulated court. Moot court, however, does not involve actual testimony by
witnesses or the presentation of evidence, but is based solely on the application of law to
a fabricated legal issue.

The Moot problem is designed to argue before the appellate form because in
most colleges they are conducting National level or International Level moot courts
where judges pretend to belong to the Supreme Court or International Court of Justice.
In fact, the moot problem can also be designed to argue before the trial court.
Practically, it is done rarely.

What does it take to participate in a moot court

competition?
Participating in moot court requires great skill and a great research work. Without
research most submissions of any counsel would be hot air. When I participated for the
first time in my college UPES, Dehradun I did not know where to start and how to do
research work. I was totally caught unprepared. Many issues arose between my team
members because we didn’t know how to divide our work and how to start, but anyhow I
submitted my memorial. The moment I submitted the memorial I was very happy
and afterwards during oral submission I had a great experience too though I came to
know my mistakes. I had showed my laziness in my memorial and for this reason I was
out in preliminary round only but as we know that “success comes from experience and
experience comes from bad experience.”

Though I had a very bad experience, I learned a lot. My memorial was of a very high
legal quality but I lost my points on editorial technicalities and on my research work.
Considering the fact that the memorials make up 50% of the total score, making a good
memorial is actually critical. A well-written submission, a logically built-up argument is
easier for a judge to understand. Judges are more likely to pick up counsel’s line of
argument and, hopefully, approve of the submissions. A well written, neat and uniformly
presented document will show the judge that the effort has been put into the case.

Where to get started in a moot problem

The best way to start a memorial is to read the problem as many times as you can and
clear up your basic regarding the topic involved in proposition. A lot of reading skill is
required. Your initial reading will give you a lot of insight as to how to go about the entire
research and then accordingly members can divide their work.

Firstly, issues should be decided and divided among team members. It is very important
to maintain a constant coordination regarding the research involved and keep on
discussing various lines of arguments. It will make the work easier for all the team
members and then all members can carry out their work accordingly.

Every moot, like every court proceeding, has two sides, the appellants and the
respondents. Usually you have to prepare for both sides. A Moot team comprises of,
generally, 2 speakers and 1 researcher.

Every moot has 2 aspects you are judged on. They are:

– Written submission called the memorial

– Oral submission

The written submission of memorial must contain the following things. The facts have to
be arranged in the following manner. They are:

Cover page
The cover page of each written submission of Memorial must have the following
information:

The name of the forum before which the proceedings are being conducted;
The title of the competition;
The name of the case;
The Title of the Memorial (“Memorial submitted on behalf of the Plaintiff or Petitioner or
Appellant” or “Memorial submitted on behalf of the Defendant or Respondent or
Respondent”).
The cover pages must be Blue for Plaintiff or Petitioner or Appellant and Red for
Defendant or Respondent or Respondent.
Plaintiff (Blue) v. Defendant (Red);

Petitioner (Blue) v. Respondent (Red);

Appellant (Blue) v. Respondent (Red);

The upper right side of the cover page must contain the Team Code that shall be
assigned to each participating teams during Registration. Names of Participants, or
Colleges or Universities should not to be mentioned anywhere on the Written Submission
of Memorial (you should check the specific rules regarding this though).
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Table of contents
It contains a list of chapters and paragraphs that are included in the memorial. We can
also mention page numbers of chapters and paragraphs. By mentioning page numbers it
will be easy for the judges and speakers to find out the mentioned arguments. The
argument is the most complex part of the brief. Therefore, the headings and subheadings
used within the argument section should also be listed in the Table of Contents with the
corresponding page number.

Index of authorities
In this all the materials which support your argument have to be added. The authorities
of Supreme Court and High courts, foreign judgments, statutes, and parliamentary
debates are mentioned under the index of authorities. Sources refer through articles,
text books, journals, and websites are also mentioned. This is not only helpful for the
speaker but also useful for the judge and other side speaker to easily determine what
case laws, constitutional provisions, statutes or other materials are being cited. Uniform
citation method has to be followed. Citation is crucial part of memorial; it should be in
correct format. Citation helps to determine from where the certain cases, statutes or
other materials have been taken. It gives easily reference to the judges from where
certain part has been taken.

List of abbreviations
It should contain all the abbreviations used in your memorial. Each abbreviation should
contain the full meaning and in whole memorial same abbreviation should be followed. It
is also necessary for the speaker to know what abbreviations they are citing in their
memorial.

Statement of jurisdiction
Jurisdiction is the most important part of memorial. The jurisdiction of the court should
be clearly mentioned with the reason. Finding the proper jurisdiction is very important.
Judges surely ask questions and thereby it is important to know the jurisdiction of the
court.

Statement of facts/ Synopsis of facts

These statements of facts/ synopsis of facts are an important part in memorial
presentation. It generally convinces the court about your client’s position and its point of
view. A judge may be well versed in law but he doesn’t know about the facts of your
particular case. So, a brief summary of facts have to be written clearly in the beginning
of the memorial but generally it should not be more than two pages. Knowing of facts in
brief is very necessary, so it is important for a speaker to go through the facts carefully
and only relevant facts should be mentioned in your memorial. Facts should not be
uninteresting. It should be in a manner that a person enjoys reading and it proves on
your side. The facts should not be assumed one; it should be real as given in the
proposition.

Statement of issues
This is a short introductory statement of the legal issues or points of law involved in the
case. It tells the judges precisely what legal issues the speaker wants the court to
decide. These statements should be phrased to help one to argue for a particular
conclusion rather than simply against the other side. These issues are stated in question
form and should be phrased in such a way that it showed on its favor side. These issues
are very short and not lengthy so as to make an individual understand the very essence
of it. They are not more than one sentence. The sentence should start with ‘Whether’ and
end up with the ‘Question mark’.

Summary of arguments
This is a brief summary of arguments based on the issues raised. It is short introductory
of issues mentioned in your memorial and each argument should not be more than one
paragraph. It only shows what you are arguing for in brief.

Arguments advanced
This is the heart and soul of the memorial. Every part of the argument must be
supported by legal authority. Arguments should be well-organized and convincing. Each
point the team wants the court to consider in deciding the case must be described, the
reasons explained with appropriate references to research materials used, and text
citations should be inserted as frequently as needed. Arguments should address legal
precedent and policy issues. Each part of the argument first addresses the issues
supporting one’s own case.

Then, address contentions anticipated to be brought up by the opposing party. The

argument should be written in forceful, active, positive language. It is best to avoid the
passive tense. Headings and subheadings are used to help in clearly organizing the
arguments. The same structure of headings and subheadings should be summarized in
the Table of Contents. The idea is to do everything in terms of both form and substance
to help the court understand the reasonableness and logic of the argument, and thus
decide in one’s favor.

Prayer
It is the relief claimed by the parties which should be clearly mentioned. More than one
relief can be claimed in one cause of action. Following the prayer signature of the council
must be stated.

This acts as the ending of the Memorial. This clearly declares what an individual be it a
petitioner or the defendant actually wants from the Court in his favor. This is the relief
mentioning sentence, and in it the basic motive of filing the suit is mentioned through
reliefs claimed.

The above written memorial must be in well versed English. It does not mean a typical
type of English; by reading one should understand and writing should contain legal
quality. After preparing memorial it is very necessary to go through the memorial at least
3-4 times and it is necessary to write in a correct format no grammatical mistakes,
otherwise it will not bring out the true essence of the memorial.

Memorial writing is an art of writing. For writing a proper memorial one has to be
thorough not only with the facts but also with the laws that have to be applied. It is a
tedious task and mooting altogether involves many of such tedious tasks. This was just
about the Memorial writing, but for insights about various other aspects of Mooting, this
revolutionary online course is second to nothing. If an individual knows the facts very
well but does not know what all laws have to be applied, the facts known will act as null
and void. Before making the memorial or start up with his work one should get well
versed with the particular area of law which is going to be applied because a single
memorial does not contain a single law but a series of laws from various sources. A
proper knowledge as well as patience is needed in making a good or even the best
memorial. A person cannot complete his memorial in one or two weeks but need a
months’ time to draft his memorial.

Ignorantia juris non excusat!

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