Government Law College, Ernakulam International Moot Court Competition
Government Law College, Ernakulam are hosting their first-ever International Moot Court Competition scheduled to be held on 26th-28th of November 2021.
About Government Law College, Ernakulam
His Highness The Maharajas Government Law College, Ernakulam is an institution for undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate legal education in Kochi, Kerala, India. Founded in 1874, it is the first law college in the state of Kerala and also one of the oldest law colleges in India. It is affiliated with Mahatma Gandhi University in Kottayam.
The college is a recognized Research Centre in Law under the Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam since 2010. The college’s alumni include Honourable (Retired) Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan, Justice K. M. Joseph, Judge, Supreme Court of India and N. R. Madhava Menon, Indian civil servant, Lawyer and Legal educator.
Objectives
The International Moot Competition aims to encourage law students to discover and improve their knowledge of international maritime law by arguing a hypothetical case before the Admiralty Court.
The IMC provides students with the opportunity to improve their public speaking, practical, and legal skills. Students will become familiar with international law, the mandate, functions, and jurisprudence.
The language of the IMC is English.
The IMC will be held virtually from November 26 - 28, 2021.
Eligibility
Any undergraduate or graduate law student from any recognized university across the world is eligible to participate in the IMC as a Team Member.
Team Composition
Teams are supposed to comprise three Team Members.
Each Team needs to nominate an official Team Coordinator. The Team Coordinator will be the contact person for the Organizers throughout the IMC.
One institution is allowed to send only one Team. If several Teams from one university apply, the Organizers will select on the first come, first serve basis.
The substitution of Team Members or Coach is not permitted after the provincial registration. However, the Organizers may grant exceptions in some limited instances.
Each team will be provided a team code prior to the submission of memorials via e- mail. This team code will be the same throughout the competition. Teams should not disclose the identity of their institution in their memorials; such disclosure shall invite penalties including disqualification. The decision for the same shall be at the discretion of the organizers.
Registration
Teams shall apply through their Team Coordinator by sending a provincial registration email to [email protected] containing the following details:
Name of the Participants (Specify the name of the team coordinator)
Email of the team members
University details and Year of Study
Faculty Letter/ Identification Card of the University confirming the participation of the team.
Only 16 teams will be allowed to participate in the competition. The teams will be selected on the basis of Memorial selection. The memorial will be valued by the panel of judges selected by the Organising Committee.
Participants will receive an acknowledgement mail from the Official mail of IMC 2021 mentioning the team code soon after success of the provincial registration. Once selected for competition, the team code will be the same throughout the competition.
The provisional registrations are open from 19th September, 2021 to 23rd October, 2021 (23:59 IST). No registrations after the said date will be accepted.
The result of the memorial selection will be announced on 15th November, 2021. The teams must register online by 20th November 2021(23:59 IST) by completing the payment of the registration fee. Teams have to register online with the link that will be sent to the teams after confirmation of the memorial selection. The email will also contain the payment details to be done.
Each team shall remit a sum of Three Thousand Rupees (Rs.3000/-) towards registration for National Teams and 50 USD for International Teams.
Dress Code
Female participants : White Shirt, Black Pants and Black Coat White Or Salwar Kameez and Black Coat.
Male participants : White Shirt and Black Pants with Black Coat and Black Tie.
Gowns and Bands are NOT permitted to be worn by the Participants in the Competition
Memorials
Each Team shall prepare Written Memorials comprising two submissions in preparation for the hearings: one for the Applicant and one for the Respondent.
Each Team shall submit their Written Memoranda in a PDF format, A4 size paper.
The Written Memoranda shall be in Times New Roman, size 12. Footnotes shall be in Times New Roman, size 10.
Each page shall have a margin of 2 cm/0.79 inches on every side of the text. Pages shall be numbered.
The text shall use a 1.5 line spacing. Footnotes shall be single-spaced.
Each submission (Applicant and Respondent) shall not exceed 25 pages, including the front page, table of contents, and footnotes. The front page shall only indicate the Team Number, the party to the proceeding (Applicant or Respondent), and “International Moot Court 2021”.
The Memorial must contain the following parts in the following order:
Cover Page;
Table of Contents;
Index of Authorities;
Statement of Jurisdiction;
Questions Presented;
Statement of Facts;
Summary of Pleadings;
Pleadings;
Conclusion/Prayer for Relief.
A Table of Abbreviations may be used, that is left to the discretion of the teams.
Footnotes must be used to identify the source of statements or propositions made in the body of the Memorial. Endnotes are not permitted. Footnotes may include substantive pleadings in addition to the text of the citation itself. Please use the following rules for footnotes:-
Journal Articles: Author, “Article title”, Journal title, volume number (year), p./para. Books: Author, Title (edition, year), p./para.
Decisions and judgements: Court, names of the parties, Case no./Application no., decision/judgement, date, para./p.
UN Documents: UN doc. S/Res/No. (year), p. no (Council)
References: The full details of a publication (as detailed above) should be given for the first reference only. For the other references, please use a short title.
Citation Form: Citations appearing in the Index of Authorities and text or footnotes of the Memorial must include a description of each authority adequate to allow a reasonable reader to identify and locate it in a publication or other source of general availability. Full citations must be used in the footnotes of the pleadings section the first time a source is cited. Thereafter short forms of citations may be used. Abbreviating sources as defined terms, or short forms of citations in the Table of Authorities, in lieu of using the full citation during the first citation to that source in the pleadings section is prohibited. A one-point Penalty will be assessed for each violation, up to a maximum of five points.
The Written Memorial comprising the two submissions shall be sent to the organizing committee no later than 8th November, 2021 (23:59 IST). No late submissions will be accepted.
Names of participants, and the nation or institution name of Teams, may not appear on or within the Memorials, and Team Members should not sign their Memorials. If the same is seen, they will result in automatic disqualification of the team.
The maximum score for each Written Memorandum is 50 points:
Up to 40 points may be awarded to the handling of substantive issues. Points are allocated as follows:
Knowledge and analysis of the facts: max 10 points
Understanding of legal issues and the applicable law: max 10 points
Legal analysis (quality of argument): max 10 points
Logic (structure of argument): max 10 points
Up to 10 points may be awarded to the overall presentation. Points are allocated as follows:
Grammar: max 3 points
Style: max 3 points
Use of legal terminology: max 4 points
Plagiarism will be sanctioned with disqualification. The Organizers may apply a penalty of five points per page for violation of Rule 7.
In exceptional circumstances or if a selected Team cannot attend the Oral Rounds, the Organizers may contact the Team with the next best results and invite it to participate.
Oral Rounds
The participants shall only be identified by their respective Code Numbers given at the time of their registration and shall refrain from any act which reveals the identity of themselves or their institution.
There shall be four oral rounds - Preliminary rounds, Quarter Final Rounds, Semi Final Rounds and the Finals.
There will be a draw of lots to decide the opposite party in the preliminary, quarter final and semi final rounds. Fixture of the competition will be decided by the Organizers before commencement of the sessions. The Organizing Committee reserves the right to make any necessary alterations in respect of the side to be taken by the competing teams in case it becomes absolutely necessary due to withdrawal of any team/teams at the far end or if the competing teams have had no opportunity to argue the other side of the problem. In the matter of disputes or complaints, the decision of the Appeal Committee chaired by the Principal, His Highness The Maharajas Government Law College, Ernakulam will be final.
Each Online Moot consists of 90 minutes of oral pleadings. Applicant and Respondent are each allotted 45 minutes. Oral presentations during the Moot must be made by two, and only two members, from each Team. Time allocated to but not used by one oralist may not be used by the other oralist or saved for rebuttal or sur-rebuttal.
Prior to the beginning of the Online Moot, the Team arguing as Applicant must indicate which Team Members will act as its first oralist and second oralist and how it wishes to allocate its 45 minutes among (a) its first oralist, (b) its second oralist, and (c) rebuttal. After Applicant has made its determinations, its Respondent Team must indicate which Team members will act as its first oralist and second oralist and how it wishes to allocate its 45 minutes among (a) its first oralist, (b) its second oralist, and (c) surrebuttal. Teams may not allocate more than 25 minutes, including rebuttal or surrebuttal, to either oralist, although the final discretion lies on the judges presiding the court.
In particular, the oralist is not permitted to share his or her screen, or present any other text or written materials at any stage. The team may however submit a google drive minimum 24 hours prior to the competition which will contain their authorities and reference which will be used during the oral rounds. This google drive will be sent to the presiding judges prior to the competition. The sharing of the screens will be done by the organizers at the request of the speakers with the permission of the judges. Reference number must be given to all the documents and files for easy accessibility. The organizers will not be responsible for any technical difficulties or faults in the marking of the documents given in the google drive by the teams.
Scouting is not allowed during the preliminary, quarter final or the semi final rounds.
Technical Requirements
Teams shall ensure they have access to the necessary materials to participate in the competition, including a laptop, microphone, video camera, and stable internet connection.
Team Members shall turn their camera on for the entire duration of the hearing. Only the microphones of the person speaking will be activated.
Team Members are prohibited from sharing their screens or presenting any materials.
No information, signs, or unique physical locations identifying the Team Members, their university, or country shall appear on screen. Any virtual backgrounds must be approved by the Organizers at least two weeks before the start of the competition.
In case of late appearance not caused by technical difficulties, the Bench may decide to give penalty points.
Timekeeping will not be interrupted in the event of minor technical failures. The Bench may grant an extension of time of maximum 5 min at their discretion.
If Team Members are experiencing technical difficulties, they must inform the Organizers immediately.
If a Team fails to join the hearing, the hearing will proceed ex parte. The attending Teams will present their oral pleadings and be scored by the judges. An ex parte hearing may also
be scheduled for the Team that could not appear due to technical difficulties.
In exceptional circumstances, the Organizers may reschedule the entire hearing.
Team members may communicate with each other in writing or electronically to support the speaker, as long as they do not disrupt the speaker.
Scoring of the Oral Rounds
The maximum score that can be obtained during the Preliminary Rounds is 100 points. Points are allocated as follows:
Knowledge and understanding of the facts and legal issues of the case: max 20 points
Use and understanding of the law and international jurisprudence: max 20 points
Reasoning: max 20 points
Overall presentation: max 20 points
Written Memorial: max 20 points
If several Teams have the same score, the Teams with the highest scores for the Written Memoranda will proceed to the next round.
For the Quarter-Finals and Semi-Finals, only the winning Teams will advance to the next round.
Researchers Test
There will be a Researchers test for the Researcher wherein he/she/they will be analysed on their understanding and knowledge of International Law. The link and other details for the same will be sent via email prior to the competition
Penalty Points and Behavior
Every Team shall maintain the utmost dignity and decorum in the courtroom and during the competition.
The Organizers and the Bench reserve the right to allocate penalty points in the event of any violation of the rules or inappropriate behavior.
Inappropriate behavior may result in the disqualification of the Team at any stage of the Competition.
Awards
The International Moot Court Competition winners will be awarded a “Running Trophy”, cash prize and certificates.
The Runners up team will be awarded a cash prize and certificates.
There will be a Best Speaker prize. This cash prize and certificate will be awarded to the participant who is judged by the organising committee to have performed best during her/his oral presentations in the preliminary round.
There will be a 2nd Best Speaker prize. This cash prize and certificate will be awarded to the participant who is judged by the organising committee to have performed best during her/his oral presentations in the preliminary round.
There will be a Best Memorial prize. All the memorials, which are submitted to the organising committee of the competition, will be evaluated and the best memorial will be chosen among them to award this cash prize and certificate.
There will be a 2nd Best Memorial prize. All the memorials, which are submitted to the organising committee of the competition, will be evaluated and the best memorial will be chosen among them to award this cash prize and certificate.
There will be a Best Researcher prize. The cash prize and certificate will be decided on the basis of the researcher’s test.
Each participant in the International Moot Court Competition will be given a general certificate of participation.
Miscellaneous Rules of the Competition
Upon completion of the competition, the organising committee reserves the exclusive right to use the memorials submitted to them, as they deem appropriate.
The organising committee reserves the right to amend, modify or repeal any of the rules if so required and as they deem appropriate. Participating teams shall receive adequate notice of any/all such amendments or modifications to the rules.
The organising committee's decision as regards the interpretation of these rules or any other matters related to the Moot Court competition shall be final and binding. If there is any situation, which is not covered by these rules, the decision of the organising committee shall be final.
Any clarifications regarding the competition may be sent to [email protected] with the subject “Request for clarification”
Personnel (Faculty)
Dr. Joby Bhasker (Convenor) - [email protected]
Smt. Mini Sughathan (Co-ordinator) - [email protected]
Student coordinators
Nandini Praveen - [email protected]
Anjuman Habeeb - [email protected]
Ann Maria Samuel - [email protected]
Akshai M Sivan - [email protected]
Important Dates
Release of Moot Problem
15th September 2021
Last date for Provisional Registration
23rd October 2021
Last date for seeking clarifications of Problem
1st November 2021
Last date for Submission of Memorials (Soft Copy in
PDF format only)
8th November 2021
Memorial Selection and Intimation
15th November 2021
Last date for Completion of Final Registration and
Payment of Registration Fee.
20th November 2021
Draw of Lots & Inauguration
26th November 2021
Researchers Test and Preliminary Round
27th November 2021
Semi-finals and Final Round
28th November 2021
