Witness Exam

The Monash Law Students' Society First Year Moot competition is a specially designed competition to introduce the exciting field of mooting to First Year Law Students.  In 2011 this competition involved over 25 teams of Monash Law students.  This competition tests both students research, formulation of legal argument and public presentation skills.  This competition is reserved for only first year law students and therefore all students are on somewhat of an even playing ground in relation to the number of years spent studying law.  Moot court problems are only taken from the field of Contract Law (the law subject taken by first year students).  In order to be eligible to compete, students must NOT have finished studying Contract Law B (however, they can be in the middle of studying Contract Law B).

Teams consist of two or three law students - two students act as barristers and an optional third student can act as a solicitor.  Once a team receives the legal problem (typically 2-3 days beforehand) they must research their legal arguments and possible opposition arguments and prepare a legal memorandum of argument.  These memorandum will be exchanged between teams on the morning of each competition round, so as teams can prepare to rebut their oppositions arguments.  The evening then brings about the actual moot, where teams vocalise their legal arguments in front of an adjudicator in a courtroom scenario.

The teams are awarded a score for their performance based on the strength of their legal memorandum, their legal arguments and their presentation skills.  Only Monash University law students who have NOT completed the unit 'Contract Law B' are eligible to compete. 

Competition dates for 2012 are as follows:

  • Registration for competition opens:  Monday 6 August 2012
  • Registration for competition closes:  Wednesday 15 August 2012 at 5pm
  • Round 1 (all teams):  Monday 20 August 2012
  • Round 2 (all teams):  Wednesday 22 August 2012
  • Quarter Final:  Monday 27 August 2012
  • Semi Final:  Wednesday 29 August 2012 (held at the sponsoring firm)
  • Grand Final:  Monday 3 September 2012 (held at the Federal Court of Australia)

Stay tuned for more information regarding this competition.

For any further questions please contact the Competitions Team by email at competitions@monashlss.com.