Utility of mooting in the legal education of Bangladesh

The term Moot has an Anglo Saxon origin from the British history where it was used to mean a meeting of the local prominent figures and nobles to discuss various issues of social or regional importance. However, in the legal arena it signifies a platform of practice for the law students where oral presentation is rendered by one counsel on a particular legal problem against the opponent counsel before a panel of judges.

A meager distinction is present between the mooting and mock trial. In mooting, it is assumed that the evidence has already been tested and it focuses on practicing speech and the ability to argue the question of law, whereas mock trial exists to test the evidence and establish the case's facts before presenting them in a real court room.

Mooting now forms a compulsory part of certain law courses in almost all of the world famous law schools, but it is still a voluntary student-organized activity in many law schools. Whether or not mooting is compulsory at a law school, gaining mooting experience can have a positive impact on the future career of a law student.

In the present context, the legal profession is an increasingly difficult one to enter and some application forms for legal profession even demand that a candidate having advocacy or mooting experience will be prioritized. Mooting also helps a law student to build confidence in public speaking, general research and presentation skills, which are useful skills that one can transfer to one's future career.

In Bangladesh, the practice of mooting has been started not much earlier. However, with the passage of time and to cope with the incessant global development in legal education the importance and necessity of the mooting are being increasingly felt in the law schools and among the law students to make the law students competent to take the on growing global critical challenges.

The leading public universities like the University of Dhaka, University of Rajshahi, Chittagong University, Jagannath University and some prominent private universities like BRAC University, Northern University, State University, Eastern University, East-West University, Northern University, Stamford University are now regularly arranging and participating in various moot court competitions both in national and international rounds.

Among the all law schools Department of Law, University of Dhaka, the old and pioneer law school of Bangladesh, is continuously earning credit both in home and abroad by arranging and participating in the highest number of moot court competitions (both national and international) in every year.

In the last session 2016-2017 it has participated a good number of moot court competitions like the prominent ones are Henry Dunant Moot Court Competition on International Humanitarian Law, Price Media Law Moot Court Competition, ICC/KLRC International Commercial Arbitration Moot Court Competition, Dr. Paras Diwan Memorial International Energy Law Moot Court Competition, Ansal University International Moot Court Competition, NLS - Trilegal International Arbitration Moot Court Competition etc.

In each of these competitions, the participants of University of Dhaka have redacted well and heightened the prestige of University of Dhaka as well as Bangladesh before the national and world forums. In Price Media Law Moot Court Competition University of Dhaka has successfully participated in the international round securing its position among the top four Law Schools of the South Asian Regional rounds.

Especially it is notable that the University of Dhaka in 2017 for the first time has participated in the 58th Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, the largest and the most prestigious moot court competition in the world and was awarded with the Best New Team award.  Dhaka University Moot Court Society (one of the most organized and active organizations of the University of Dhaka) is working relentlessly under the guidance of its President, moderator and concerned faculties to make the moot loving students competent to perform well in the national and international competitions. In every year it organizes different workshops, seminars, inter and intra year moot court competitions with the help of its Executive Board and General Committee.

Within a short span, it has propagated a good number of skilled mooters and researchers who are doing well in their respective professional fields. It is highly abided that this trend of success of the Dhaka University Moot Court Society will be continuously upgrading with the support of its moot loving present and ex students and concerned faculties.

In this way, Mooting has been an essential part of the legal education. It introduces a law graduate with the real courtroom atmosphere. It provides the sphere where learners are trained for the future in the journey of being good adjudicators and counselors. Actually, the ongoing traditional methods of legal education are not suitable to develop the intellectual spirit of the learners.

The students cannot get the real smack of legal education to face the professional challenges. The regular practice of mooting is necessary for the law students to enrich their research and presentation skills. It should be a mandatory part of legal education for every law student to learn the theory and methods of application simultaneously.

The writer is a Law Student, University of Dhaka . Member of general committee, Dhaka University Moot Court Society