TOURO LAW CENTER S 1 st ANNUAL NATIONAL MOOT COURT COMPETITION: LAW AND RELIGION April 10-11, 2014 2014 COMPETITION RULES
1. ORGANIZATION OF THE COMPETITION AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF PARTICIPATING COMPETITORS A. The 1 st Annual National Moot Court Competition ( Competition ) in Law and Religion will be hosted by Touro Law Center s Moot Court Honors Board ( the Board ) on April 10, 2014 April 11, 2014. The Competition is administered by the Board and is designed to strengthen students advocacy skills. B. The Board will interpret, apply and enforce these rules for the Competition. The Board will also be responsible for managing the Competition and addressing all concerns that may arise. Any concerns regarding the Competition shall be brought to the attention of the Moot Court E-Board at mootcourt@tourolaw.edu. C. Each team wishing to participate in the Competition must register online at www.tourolaw.edu/mootcourt. Payments must also be made online. 2. TEAM COMPOSITION A. Each law school participating in the Competition is limited to sending two teams. B. Each team shall consist of at least two members, but no more than three. C. Each team must designate a team representative to whom information may be sent and with whom questions or concerns may be discussed. D. If a team must substitute a competitor prior to the release of the problem but after registering such team, please notify the Board as soon as possible. After the problem is released, no team may substitute a member without good cause (ex. uncontrollable circumstances). Decisions as to what constitutes good cause will be determined by the Board. 3. TEAM ANONYMITY A. The identity of the law school represented by the participating team members may not be revealed by the teams to the judges or other competitors at any time before the end of the competition. B. Each team will be identified by the team letter given to them by the Board. C. No team logos may be present during the competition that may identify students with their school. This includes pens, paper, folders, backpacks, hats, sweatshirts, etc. 4. FACULTY ASSISTANCE IS PROHIBITED A. The brief must be the competitors own work. B. No faculty, staff, practicing attorneys or judges may help or direct competitors in their research, writing, or their factual or legal analysis of the problem. C. After the brief is submitted, competitors may have non-team members judge practice arguments and provide guidance on their oral arguments. 5. WITHDRAWING A. After a registration form has been received, no team is entitled to reimbursement. The Board is not responsible for any lost expense. B. If a team does withdraw, a member of that team must notify the Moot Court Honors Board at mootcourt@touroalaw.edu. 6. BRIEFS A. The Board will designate a briefing side and a team number for each team when the problem is released. B. Teams must submit a brief for the side designated and if a school sends two teams, each team will be assigned opposing sides and must work separately. Each brief must indicate on the cover whether the team is representing the Petitioner or Respondent.
C. Both team members must participate equally in writing the brief. In the event that a team has three members, the third member must share in the oral advocacy responsibilities. D. Citations must conform to the 19 th Edition of A Uniform System of Citation published by Harvard Law Review Association ( The Bluebook ). E. Each team must submit one electronic copy of the brief in PDF format to the Moot Court Honors Board at mootcourt@tourolaw.edu. F. The brief is due no later than March 9, 2014 at 11:59 pm. Any team whose brief is received later than March 9, 2014 at 11:59 pm will receive a 10-point penalty for each day it is late, which will be deducted from the brief score. No briefs will be accepted later than March 12, 2014. G. Briefs must be submitted in Times New Roman size 12-font double-spaced. No brief shall exceed 30 pages. The page limit does not include the Cover Page, Table of Contents, Table of Authorities, Questions Presented, or Appendices. The paper size must be 8 ½ x 11, and each brief must have 1-inch margins at the top and bottom, and on the right and left sides. a. Each Brief must include the following sections in the following order: i. Cover Page; ii. Table of Contents; iii. Table of Authorities; iv. Questions Presented; v. Statement of the Case; vi. Opinion Below; vii. Summary of the Argument; viii. Argument; ix. Conclusion; x. Appendices (if applicable). H. For teams representing the Petitioner, the brief must have a red cover page. For teams representing the Respondent, the brief must have a blue cover page. I. Each team submitting a brief must acknowledge that the team s work is original and that the brief complies with the Rules set forth herein within the text of the e-mail that is sent with the brief attached. Any brief that is not submitted with this certification will not be graded. 7. RELEASING OF COMPETITORS BRIEFS A. Competing teams will have an opportunity prior to the Competition to read their opponents briefs. All submitted briefs will be e-mailed to each contact name set forth on the Registration Form no later than March 10, 2014. 8. BRIEF SCORING A. Two faculty advisors and one Board member will blindly grade each brief. Each grader will use the official grading sheet. B. Each team s overall brief score will be the average of the panel of graders scores. C. The brief will count toward 40% of the team s score during the Preliminary Rounds of oral arguments. D. The brief will count toward 30% of the team s score during the Quarter-Final Rounds. E. The brief will count toward 20% of the team s score during the Semi-Final Rounds. F. The brief will not count toward the team s score during the Final Round.
9. ORAL ARGUMENTS A. Each team will be limited to thirty minutes of argument per round. Each member of the team will argue one of the issues presented during each round. B. Teams representing the Petitioner will be allowed to take up to 3 minutes for rebuttal time. Such time will be deducted from their overall time. C. Rebuttal time can be charged to either member s time. D. Preliminary Rounds: a. Each team will argue a minimum of two Preliminary Rounds ( on brief and off brief ) for thirty minutes. Teams will be seeded based on their brief scores. Teams in the top half of the brief scores will be randomly paired against teams in the bottom half of the brief scores for each preliminary round. No teams will be paired together twice. In the event that there are an uneven number of registered teams, the Board holds the discretion to enlist a ghostteam who will be a random pairing of Moot Court Honors Board members. The ghost team will not be able to advance to the next round. These arguments will be held on April 10, 2014 at Touro Law Center. The eight highest scoring teams will advance to the Quarter-Final Rounds. E. Quarter-Final Rounds: a. Teams will be paired by win/loss records from the preliminary rounds. The highest seeded team will be paired with the lowest seeded team. To determine which side will be argued by which team, a coin will be tossed by a member of the Moot Court Honors Board. The highest seeded team will call heads or tails and the winner of the coin toss will decide which side that team will argue. These rounds will be held at Touro Law Center on April 10, 2014. This round will be a single elimination round. The four teams who win in their room will advance to the Semi-Final Rounds. F. Semi-Final Rounds: a. The Semi-Final Rounds will be held on April 11, 2014. b. The winner of 1 v. 8 will go against the winner of 4 v. 5, and the winner of 2 v. 7 will go against the winner of 3 v. 6. The same coin toss will be implemented during these rounds. These rounds will be held at the United States Courthouse for the Eastern District of New York This round will be a single elimination round. The two teams who win in their room will advance to the Final Round. G. Final Round: a. The Final Round will be held on April 11, 2014. b. The winner of the Final Round will be determined by the judges of the Final Round, solely on the basis of the Final Round oral argument performances. This Final Round will be held at the United States Courthouse for the Eastern District of New York. 10. SCORING A. The scores of the teams will be computed for each of the preliminary rounds by adding the brief score and oral argument score together. The oral argument score will count toward 60% of the overall score and the brief will count toward 40% of the overall score. The scores from the judges during the oral arguments will be averaged together for the argument score.
B. During the Quarter-Final Rounds the brief will count toward 30% of the overall score and the oral argument score will count toward 70% of the score. The scores from the judges during the oral arguments will be averaged together for the argument score. C. During the Semi-Final Rounds, the brief will count toward 20% of the overall score and the oral argument score will count towards 80% of the score. The scores from the judges during the oral arguments will be averaged together for the argument score. D. During the Final Rounds, the oral argument score will count towards 100% of the score. E. In the event a tie occurs, the team with the winning brief score will be declared the winner. 11. ANNOUNCEMENTS AND AWARDS A. On Thursday April 10, 2014, Touro Law Center will host an awards banquet at the Law Center. At this banquet six oralist awards will be presented. These awards will be based upon performance in the Preliminary Rounds. In addition, at the banquet, awards will be presented for the three highest scored briefs. B. The team that wins the Final Round will be named the 1 st Place Team. The team that competes in the Final Round, but does not win, will be named the 2 nd Place Team. Awards for these two teams will be given out at a luncheon following the Finals Round on April 11, 2014 at Touro Law Center. 12. ADMINISTRATION A. For requests for information or rule interpretations, please contact the Moot Court Honors Board at mootcourt@tourolaw.edu. B. The Board has the discretion to modify these rules accordingly.