National workshop on Art of Mooting

A two-day national workshop on the topic ‘Art of Mooting’ was conducted by Saveetha School of Law, Department of Criminal Law on 22nd and 23rd October, 2019. The guest lecturer was Mr. Akash Gupta, Research Associate and Moot Coordinator at Jindal Global Law School. Mr. Akash Gupta has completed his LLM in International Commercial Arbitration Law from Stockholm University and has the honor of winning the number 16 spot at the 26th Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot, Vienna.

The workshop was divided into several sessions which included Presentation, Quiz, Interaction, Mock Arbitration, Question and Answers and Feedback. The different stages of moot preparation starting from Pre-memorial, During-memorial, Pre-orals, During-orals and Post-orals has been well addressed by the resource person. The common mistakes teams make while drafting memorials like use of jargon, adjectives etc were discussed in detail. He highlighted the importance of body language and how to answer calmly in high voltage question grounds. He reiterated the importance of networking and learning to unlearn for mooters. The speaker discussed all the minute aspects of moots starting from the very basics like selecting suitable team members, team building, funding for the team, registering for the moots, reading every detail of the proposition when released, preparing the memorandum, dividing issues equally among the team members, drafting the memorandum multiple times, checking the grammar and language of the memorandum constantly, behavior in a moot trial including confident sitting postures and facial expressions, responding to the judges, time management, delivering the final prayer and also tips to follow until the final results are announced.

The two-day workshop completely changed the way students traditionally approach moot competitions. The workshop helped them understand the purpose behind moots and that moots are not just about legal arguments. The workshop concluded with a mock arbitral trial were all the participants formed their own teams and given an opportunity to present before the resource person. The session ended with students sharing their honest feedback about the workshop by thanking the speaker and organizers for a memorable two days which will be useful throughout their lives, during their moot competitions and also in the real world.