Courts of Space (CoS)

Moot Court Competition

The DIFC Courts CoS Moot Courtis a competition consisting of four (4) days with preliminary rounds, quarter-final rounds, semi-final rounds and a final round.

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2024

  • Day 1 May 7, 2024

    12:00 pm to 6:00pm

  • Day 2 May 7, 2024

    12:00pm to 6:00pm

  • Day 3 May 8, 2024

    12:00pm to 6:00pm

  • Day 4 May 21, 2024

    12:00pm to 8:00pm

Organisation
Of The Competition

Structure Of The Competition

The CoS hybrid Moot Court is a competition consisting of four (4) days with preliminary rounds, quarter-final rounds, semi-final rounds and a final round. The Moot is open to all global university students, consisting of a minimum of two (2), and a maximum of four (4) students. Participating students should be actively enrolled in a bachelor’s or master’s programme of law and should not possess any professional pleading experience. The competition consists of a written submission and oral advocacy.

Language

The Moot Court competition will be conducted in the English language. Both the oral rounds and the skeleton arguments submitted must be in English. Submissions in any other language will not be accepted.

Competition Format

1

a) During the Moot Court, each university team will make two (2) submissions per session.

b) All Moot Court sessions consist of ninety (90) minutes of oral submissions (including time for judicial intervention). Each team has forty-five (45) minutes each to make their submissions, including rebuttals (which must not exceed ten (10) minutes). The division of time between Senior and Junior advocates is a matter for each Team. Prior to commencement of each round, the judges will orally invite the Senior Claimant and Defendant to indicate how their respective Teams intend to divide the allotted time. Teams will be held to that allocation.

c) Each team must have only two (2) oralists during each moot session. Teams can choose the same, or different, oralists for each session.

d) Each team shall allocate a Senior Counsel and a Junior Counsel. The case involves a claim and a counterclaim. Senior Counsel will address the claim, and Junior counsel will address the Counterclaim.

e) During each round, submissions are presented in the following order:

  • a. Senior Claimant (SA) – Claim

    b. Senior Defendant (SD) – Defence to Claim

    c. Senior Claimant – Rebuttal relating to Claim

  • d. Junior Defendant (JD) – Counterclaim

    e. Junior Claimant (JC) – Defence to Counterclaim

    f. Junior Defendant (JD) – Rebuttal relating to Counterclaim

2

a) Each team must prepare and submit an Claimant and Defendant court bundle that should be:

1. A PDF file.

2. Contain an index,the skeleton argument(see Rule 2.3 for further guidance on this), followed by the authorities in date order(see rule 2.4 for further guidance of case citation).

3. Be paginated, and the pagination should match the PDF (generally,the first page of the index should be page 1).

4. The index should be hyperlinked.

5. The file should be named with the name of the team followed by whether itis an appellant bundle or respondent bundle.

6. Proper electronic versions of the law reports (rather than website printouts) should be used where possible.

  • b)Marks will be deducted from any team that submits a court bundle in a format other than that prescribed in above;

    c) Teams must send a copy of the court bundle in an electronic format by e-mailto the organisers before the announced deadline;

    d) No team may revise, substitute, add to, delete or in any other manner alter its written pleadings after submission

3

a) These are documents filed with the court in advance of the hearing. They summarise what you will say to the judge at the hearing and provide a broad outline of the main argument. The skeleton argument is not meant to contain everything that you will argue in front of the judges. The skeleton arguments must focus on the relevant facts, issues and arguments that are relevant for the Moot problem.

b) Each team must submit two (2) skeleton arguments: one (1) on behalf of the Claimant and one (1) on behalf of the Defendant as part of the court bundle.

c) For the purposes of this competition, each skeleton argument should be no more than 1,500 words and the format must comply with the DIFC Courts Practice Direction No. 2of 2016 (only paragraphs 4, 5 and 6 of the DIFC Courts Practice Direction shall apply in this competition).

4

a) Legislation should not be abbreviated and should include section and sub-section numbers.

b) Cases should be in Italics and have the neutral citation (if it has one) and then the report citation. If the case does not have a neutral citation, then you should put the court abbreviation in brackets at the end.

c) When referencing a DIFC Courts judgment, you must follow the structure below: (Note: If it is a Court of Appeal judgment, then DIFC Courts CFI becomes DIFC Courts CA)

– Case Name [date proceedings commenced] DIFC Courts CFI [case number] (date of judgment).

For example: DIFC Investments Ltd v Dubai Islamic Bank [2022] DIFC Courts CFI 024 (13 June 2022).

Moot Court Official Schedule

Monday 6th May

2024

Preliminary Round Day 1 (Online)

Tuesday 7th May

2024

Preliminary Round Day 2 (Online)

Wednesday 8th May

2024

Quarter Final (Online)

Saturday 18th May

2024

Teams Travel Time

Monday 20th May

2024

Teams welcome session, introduction and tour in DIFC Courts

Tuesday 21st May

2024

Semi Final (Face to Face)
Final (Closing Ceremony/Reception announcing the winners & awards).

Wednesday 22nd May

2024

Teams Travel Back

Attend the
Virtual Moot Court

  • Day 1 May 7, 2024

    12:00 pm to 6:00pm

  • Day 2 May 7, 2024

    12:00pm to 6:00pm

  • Day 3 May 8, 2024

    12:00pm to 6:00pm

  • Day 4 May 21, 2024

    12:00pm to 8:00pm
Click Here

For any enquiries, please contact dec.mootcourt@difccourts.ae

1.

Institutional eligibility

All educational institutions offering a degree, or similar graduate or postgraduate qualification or training, in law or in a field related to international law, are eligible to participate in the competition.

Team composition and eligibility

a) All teams shall be composed of students who are enrolled in a programme of law bachelor’s or master’s at the participating universities in accordance with Rule 2.1.

b) Each team shall be composed of a minimum of two (2) and a maximum of four (4) students and may include advisors in accordance with Rule 3. Once a team has been registered, team participants (including students and advisors) cannot be replaced, except in exceptional circumstances and with prior approval from the organisers in accordance with Rule 3.3.

c) A person may be a team member if they:

ii. Are pursuing a degree, or similar graduate or postgraduate qualification in law, or in a field related to international law

iii. Are intending to compete on behalf of an eligible institution at which they are enrolled as a full-time or part-time student as of the time of registration of the competition until its competition

iv. have not, after having graduated from any type of law degree program, engaged in the practice of law or gained professional pleading experience.

2.

Team advisors registration

The name of each Team Advisor must be registered with the team by the registration deadline in the Moot official schedule.

Number of advisors

There is no limit on the number of advisors that each team can have, although the standard number for coaches can be anywhere between one to four advisors.

Assistance from advisors

a) It is expected that students should do all the research and writing of the skeleton arguments themselves; team advisors may help in identify the issues, comment on the persuasiveness of the arguments the students have made in drafts and, when necessary, suggest other arguments the students might consider employing. However, it is vital that the final product must be that of the team.

b) During the oral rounds, it is expected and encouraged that teams will have practice arguments, whether against other members of the Team or against other Teams that will participate in the Moot. The Advisors can be more involved in preparing the Teams for the oral rounds.

3.

Registration process

a) Registrations are accepted on a first come, first served basis. Each team must register by completing a registration form online by the deadline in the Moot official schedule. Each team must provide a valid email address at registration. Notice sent to the registered email address for the team constitutes notice to all team members.

b) It is the responsibility of all team members and team advisors to regularly check their team emails for updates and announcements of the Moot and to provide up to date email and contact details.

Changes to registration information

Once team members and team advisors are registered, teams may not make additions or substitutions of team members or team advisors without permission from the Organisers. A request for change can be made by submitting an email describing the nature and reason for the change to cos.mootcourt@difccourts.ae.. The final decision permitting the change will be at the discretion of the organisers who may consider such submissions only in exceptional circumstances.

4.

a) The Problem in the DIFC Court – DIFC Space Court 2024 involves a fictional dispute of the kind that would be expected to be heard in the DIFC Space Court”.

b) The moot problem will be published on the Competition website. Click here for the moot problem.

c) Teams may submit three clarification questions to the moot problem within the indicated clarifications deadline.

Judging Rounds

Judging Written Submission

The skeleton arguments will be awarded a score out of a maximum of one hundred (100) points per team. The judging criteria is as follows:

1. Organisation, structure, and analysis of the issues: (20 points)

2. Use of facts and legal principles: (20 points)

3. Use of authorities and citations: (20 points)

4. Persuasiveness and reasoning: (20 points)

5. Creativity (20 points).

Meet the teams Meet the judge

Judging Oral Rounds

a) Each bench in the preliminary and quarter final rounds will be composed of two (2) Judges and one (1) Presiding Judge (appointed by the organisers) and shall be assisted by a host

b) Each oral argument shall be judged individually by the Judges, acting independently of one another

c) Scores are rewarded out of a maximum of 100 points per team as follows:

1. Organisation, structure, and analysis of the issues: (20 points)

2. Use of facts and legal principles: (20 points)

3. Use of authorities and citations: (20 points)

4. Persuasiveness and reasoning: (20 points)

5. Presentation and teamwork: (20 points).