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Moot Court

What is a moot court?

A moot court trains students on written and oral advocacy as they work on mock problems in different areas of law, usually linking training and learning to current legal issues. Students conduct legal research and prepare written memorials. Then, students argue the cases before a panel of judges or arbitrators, following procedural rules and applying professional conduct like real lawyers.

Moot court exercises are supervised by faculty members who have practical experience in addition to their academic career.

Why mooting?

The Moot Court is a tool to teach students advocacy skills, an equip them with the attributes of an effective and successful professional lawyer. As a result, we implement activities related to writing legal memoranda, legal research skills to identify the problem and its issue and analyze them, the legal writing skills, the skills to find out legal issues, the law, the ability to interpret facts and law, court behavior, speech control, methods of addressing the court, etc.

During Moot Court, our students learn how to plead their case but also how to build their case. Thus, they are trained to represent the views of their clients in a professional and convincing manner.

Moot Court Room

The Moot Court Room was established in Spring 2018/2019 to familiarize students with different cases in the various areas of law, providing them insight about the legal practice.

The facilities of the Moot Court Room are designed at high quality standards to provide students with experiential learning.

Supplementing Courses

The Moot Court is part of our program’s Internal Legal Practice Course. It provides students the possibility to understand, examine and categorize different case studies, improving their cognitive abilities in relating and comparing their acquired theory to the practical field. It gives them the opportunity to perform and understand the different legal roles encountered in the legal field, enhancing their skills and capabilities required in practice through simulated court proceedings, where students apply to facts of a case and must submit memos/oral arguments, relating their acquired theory to practical assumptions.

The Moot Court room is also used for exercises in relevant courses, such as Evidence, Civil Procedures, and Criminal Procedures.

Moot Competitions

Apart from teaching to plead we also organize or take part in several Moot Court competitions. In 2020, our female and male students participated in the Moot Arbitration Competition organized by the Saudi Center for Commercial Arbitration. The female team was one of the top four teams, and one student won the prize of best oralist for the defendant. The male team reached the quarter finals and received honorable mention of best oralists.

The following are other events (2017-2019) at which PMU law students have participated:

  • 2017 – Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Competition, International Rounds, Washington DC (‘exhibition’ team)
  • 2018 – Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Competition, GCC Friendly in Kuwait International Law School, Kuwait.
  • 2018 – Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Competition, International Rounds, Washington DC
  • 2018 – Arabic Moot Competition, Kuwait International Law School, Kuwait.
  • 2019 – Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Competition, GCC Friendly, Kuwait International Law School, Kuwait.
  • 2019 – Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Competition, International Rounds, Washington DC
  • 2019 – Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot for law students in April 2019 in Vienna.

Currently, students are preparing to participate in:

  • Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot for law students in April 2020 in Vienna.
  • SCCA Arabic Moot Court: 12 students participated at the 2nd Conference of International Arbitration organized by the Saudi Center for Commercial Arbitration. The students also attended a training related to the Arabic Moot Court. As a result, PMU students will participate in the Arabic Moot Court in March 2020 in Riyadh.
  • Arabic Moot Court: PMU students will participate in the Arabic Moot Court in April 2020 in Kuwait.

Students’ testimonials

“I am honored to be one of the first students to have pleaded at PMU’s Moot Court. The room is identical to a prestigious professional court, and built within the national and international standards, which helps us as students get the experience we need before heading out into the workforce. It had gotten us even more excited to work hard and present well. I hope we get to visit the Moot Court regularly to gain from the benefits it provides” ~ Nouf Alabdulkarim
“The Moot Court visit was a pleasant surprise for us to experience court in real life. It was so exciting to finally play roles of defense attorneys and public prosecutors in a real Court” ~ Noura Alsarra
“Visiting the Moot Court was a very nice experience, which made us all surprised and excited to present our assignment as if it was a real court, which can help us later in the future to prepare for our jobs” ~ Jumanah Basodan
“Our visit to the University Moot Court was not like any visit at any of other university sites. We got to experience how to act inside the court and had a clear vision of how to interact with the judge. This visit helped us understand the system and method of pleading before a Court. It is one of the best adventures I have had during my study journey.” ~ Ola Alghamdi