The Rules
The Rules
1. The Competition shall be run under the auspices of a Red Cross Advisory Board, which shall have the power to:
- i. co-opt members;
- ii. appoint a Secretary and Assistant Secretary to administer the Competition;
- iii. appoint judges; and
- iv. amend these rules as it thinks fit.
Composition
2. The Competition shall be open to not more than one delegation from each participating institution.
3. Each delegation from a participating institution shall consist of four students, comprising one team of two students for the Applicant and one team of two students for the Respondent. The roles of Applicant and Respondent will be allocated to the teams by the participating institution.
Eligibility
4. Participating students shall be registered, either for a first degree in law or for an advanced degree in law, with the relevant participating institution as of 15th September, 2003 and need not be from the country in which that participating institution is located. No more than one student per team shall have been admitted or licensed to practise law, as of
Registration
5. Each participating institution shall notify the Secretary via e-mail (to wilson.wong@redcross.org.hk) by
- i. The names of the four students in its delegation;
- ii. Which two of these four students will comprise the Applicant team and which two students will comprise the Respondent team;
- iii. The law degree in which each of the four students is enrolled (e.g. LL.B.).
- iv. The name, address, e-mail address, fax number and telephone number of a contact person for the participating institution, who shall be a member of the teaching staff of the participating institution.
Contact Person
6. Each contact person for a participating institution will be sent:
- i. The individual moot number assigned to each of its teams;
- ii. Information relating to accommodation and transport in Hong
- Kong;
- iii. Any other relevant organisational material.
The contact person for each participating institution is responsible for distributing the foregoing information and material to each of the two teams comprising its delegation. Communication between each delegation and the Secretary or Advisory Board through any one other than the relevant contact person for that delegation is at the risk of that delegation and its two teams.
Substitute members
7. A participating institution may substitute a student previously registered as a member of its delegation with another student only with the express prior consent of the Secretary.
Selection
8. The Secretary shall have the sole power to determine the mooting problem to be used in the Competition.
Distribution
9. The mooting problem will be distributed on
Facts
10. The facts in the dispute that constitutes the subject matter of the moot are given in the mooting problem. No additional facts may be introduced into the moot unless they are a logical and necessary extension of the given facts.
Clarifications
11. Any requests for clarification of the mooting problem shall be brought to the attention of the Secretary via e-mail (to wilson.wong@redcross.org.hk) by
Receipt of Problem and Clarifications
12. Any team that is unable to receive the mooting problem or the clarifications in the manner distributed should notify the Secretary immediately via e-mail (to wilson.wong@redcross.org.hk), fax (to the attention of Wilson Wong, at 852-8202-7359) or telephone (at 852-2802-0021), to arrange an alternative method of distribution.
Form and Length
13. Each team shall submit a memorial for the Applicant or the Respondent, as designated by their participating institution.
14. Each memorial shall be typed with 1 ½ line-spacing, using ‘Arial’ or ‘Times New Roman’ font in size 12. Each memorial shall not exceed 2000 words in length, including citations.
15. Citations must be in the body of the text or in footnotes (not end notes) and should be in an intelligible form.
16. Each memorial must have two cover sheets:
- i. The first cover sheet must indicate the name of the participating institution, the names of the two student members of the team, and whether the memorial is for the Applicant or the Respondent.
- ii. The second cover sheet must have on it only the team’s individual moot number which was supplied to the contact person of the team’s relevant delegation upon registration (see Rule 6 above). (The purpose of this requirement is to protect the anonymity of the teams to ensure no prejudice or bias is shown in the assessment of the memorials.)
Submission of Memorials
17. Each team shall submit a copy of its memorial via e-mail (to wilson.wong@redcross.org.hk) by 10th February, 2004, and must dispatch via DHL (or a similar express mail service) by that same day a computer diskette containing the same memorial, together with 6 hard copies of the same memorial, to the Secretary at the following address:
Mr. Wilson Wong
Deputy Secretary General
Hong Kong S.A.R.
The copies of the memorial which are e-mailed and contained on computer diskette must be in one of the following word processing formats: WordPerfect (.wpd or.doc), Microsoft Word for Windows (.doc), or Rich Text Format (.rtf). No other data format will be accepted without the express prior consent of the Secretary. The computer diskette should be prominently labelled with the name of the participating institution, stating whether the memorial is for the Applicant or the Respondent, and the word processing format used.
18. The hard copies of the memorials may be reproduced on both sides of the paper.
19. The hard copies of the memorials must be securely stapled or bound together so that the stapling or binding will hold throughout the moot. Memorials should not be held together by rubber bands, lightweight staples, paperclips, pins or other insecure means.
Revision of Memorials
20. A memorial may not be revised for any purpose whatsoever once it has been submitted.
Exchange of Memorials
21. The Secretary will convene a meeting, which all teams must attend, at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, 27th February 2004, at the Hong Kong Red Cross Headquarters, 33 Harcourt Road, Hong Kong. At the meeting, the Secretary will pair each Applicant team from a participating institution with a Respondent team from another participating institution by means of ballot. The Secretary will then distribute a copy of each team’s memorial to its paired opposing team.
Venue
22. The general rounds and the final round will be held at the High Court of Hong Kong, 38 Queensway, Hong Kong, unless teams are otherwise notified by the Secretary prior to or during the meeting referred to in Rule 21 above.
Rules Applicable to the General Rounds and the Final Round
23. Each team of two will consist of two oralists comprising a leading counsel and a junior counsel, as designated by the team or by its relevant participating institution.
24. Leading counsel (the first oralist) for each team will be permitted to speak for no more than 20 minutes.
25. Junior Counsel (the second oralist) for each team will be permitted to speak for no more than 15 minutes.
26. Each team may reserve up to ten minutes for rebuttal (in the case of an Applicant team) or surrebuttal (in the case of a Respondent team). Each team shall indicate at the beginning of their oral argument, how much time they intend to reserve for rebuttal or surrebuttal. Only one member of the team may address the court in rebuttal or in surrebuttal.
27. The court may, in its discretion extend the time for each counsel for good cause, provided that the maximum extension for any counsel shall not exceed five minutes.
28. Time shall be kept by a court clerk, who will warn counsel by appropriate means when they have:
- i. five minutes left;
- ii. one minute left;
- iii. to conclude their address forthwith.
29. The order of the oral presentations shall be:
- i. Applicant’s leading counsel;
- ii. Applicant’s junior counsel;
- iii. Respondent’s leading counsel;
- iv. Respondent’s junior counsel;
- v. Rebuttal, if any (Applicant’s leading or junior counsel);
- vi. Surrebuttal, if any (Respondent’s leading or junior counsel).
30. Every courtesy shall be given to oralists during oral hearings. Communication at the counsel table shall be in writing to prevent disruption, and teams and spectators shall avoid all unnecessary noise or other inappropriate behavior which distracts from the argument in progress. Team members seated at the counsel table shall not be permitted to communicate with spectators, or with any other external person except the judges.
General Rounds
31. The general rounds will be held on the morning of Saturday, 28th February 2004, unless teams are otherwise notified by the Secretary prior to or during the meeting referred to in Rule 21 above.
32. Each team will argue once in the general rounds.
Final Round
33. The final round will be held in the afternoon of Saturday, 28th February, 2004, unless teams are otherwise notified by the Secretary prior to or during the meeting referred to in Rule 21 above.
34. The Applicant team and the Respondent team with the highest aggregate score out of 400 (after combining its memorial score out of 100 and its oral presentation score out of 300, pursuant to Rules 38 through 40 below) after the completion of the general rounds will meet in the final round. In the event that, after the completion of the general rounds, two Applicant teams or two Respondent teams tie for the highest score out of 400, the Applicant or Respondent team which will proceed to the final round will be the team which has the highest score out of 300 for its oral presentation in the general rounds.
Memorials
35. All research, writing and editing relating to the memorial must be work of the team of two students submitting that memorial, provided, however, that the team may receive research assistance from the other team of two students in the delegation from its participating institution.
Oral Hearings
36. Each participating institution shall be permitted to arrange practice moots.
Assistance from Staff and Other Advisors
37. Staff of the participating institutions and other coaches, assistants or advisors should restrict their advice to general matters, such as to a discussion of the issues, suggestions as to research sources, and a general commentary on argument organisation and structure, the flow of arguments, format, presentation and style.
38. Scoring shall consist of two parts: the scoring of memorials and the scoring of the oral presentations.
39. Each memorial shall be assessed by a panel of two judges, at least one of whom is a current or former judge, lawyer, or law teacher. The maximum score for each memorial shall be 100. The panel will be supplied with copies of the memorials which have on the cover sheet only the teams’ individual moot numbers.
40. The oral presentations shall be assessed by two judges in each oral hearing of the general rounds and by three judges in the oral hearing of the final round. At least one of the two judges in each oral hearing of the general rounds, and at least two of the three judges in the oral hearing of the final round, shall be a current or former judge, lawyer, or law teacher. The maximum score for each counsel shall be 150 and the maximum score for each team’s oral presentation shall be 300.
41. The decision of the judges shall be final.
42. The winning team shall be the team participating in the final round with the highest aggregate score out of 400, after combining its memorial score out of 100 and its score in the oral presentation in the final round out of 300. The winning team shall be awarded a trophy and the prize of a field trip to a country in the Asia-Pacific region with the Red Cross (or an alternative prize, which shall be at the discretion of the Red Cross).
43. The counsel with the highest score out of 150 in the oral hearings of the general rounds shall be adjudged the Best Mooter and shall be awarded the prize of a certificate.
44. The memorial with the highest score out of 100 shall be adjudged the Best Memorial and the team that submitted such memorial shall be awarded the prize of a certificate.
45. The Advisory Board shall have absolute discretion to resolve any question concerning the interpretation of these rules.