Mooting for learning

UKCLE PDF project

Project leaders: Alisdair Gillespie, De Montfort University (e-mail: agillespie@dmu.ac.uk) and Gary Watt, University of Warwick (e-mail: gary.watt@warwick.ac.uk)
Project summary: study of the use of mooting within the academic stage of legal education
Completion date: 2007
UKCLE funding: £750

Little has been written on the place of mooting within the undergraduate curriculum, although it is recognised as a useful skill and learning tool. This project was the first comprehensive public study of the use of mooting within the curriculum of the academic stage of legal education.

The project consisted of three phases – an initial survey on the use of mooting, followed up by a detailed survey on the assessment of mooting and qualitative interviews focusing on specific institutions – an interim report presented initial findings from phases I and II. The findings were also compared with unpublished research carried out in 1995 by two Warwick law students as a part of their undergraduate dissertation. The students, Kevin Calder and Shameer Sacranie, went on to set up Mooting Net, a mooting site for students.

Summary of findings

It is known that mooting has been used within legal education for many years, and indeed some argue that it is the oldest form of legal education. Other commentators are more sceptical, believing that a modern moot has little resemblance to its traditional cousin. It is beyond doubt that mooting has remained a healthy feature of most law schools, with many universities stressing the opportunity to moot during recruitment (Broadbent 2001), however there continues to be some disagreement as to precisely what mooting should be used for.

It is perhaps not unsurprising that this debate exists, since it is well known that the legal academy is constantly grappling with the question of what a law degree is, with a tension existing between those who believe it is an introductory part of the qualification process and those who think it provides a liberal independent programme of study. Mooting, it may be thought, would be welcomed by those who believe in more ‘professional skills’ (meaning the skills required by those seeking to become solicitors or barristers), but in fact it is often criticised for being simply unrealistic (Kozinski 1997). Such criticisms may have some validity, because a moot is structured in a way that no appellate case in real life ever is (Gillespie 2007). However, mooting remains a popular activity, and our research demonstrates that there is a widespread perception that it can assist in the development of academic skills, including presentation and critical thinking.

One of the principal aims of our research was to track how mooting is used by institutions that teach law at undergraduate level. We had access to the findings from smaller scale research conducted by two undergraduates at the University of Warwick ten years previously, and perhaps the most notable shift has been the way that mooting has been brought into the curriculum. In 1995 only 20% of mooting operated within the curriculum, yet by 2005 nearly 60% of mooting took place in this way. Whilst this means that 40% of institutions continue to use mooting solely in an extracurricular manner, it is a significant shift.

Our research found that the majority of mooting takes place within the first year of study, ordinarily in legal skills modules or in a contract module. Contract is most likely to be used where there is no discrete skills module, with skills development housed instead within substantive modules.

The development of skills is seen as an important role of mooting, with Broadbent (2001) suggesting that rather than being a skill in its own right it is best conceived as a complex vehicle for the development of a number of skills. Certainly our research demonstrated that many people believe that one of the advantages of mooting is that it is a ‘fun’ way of developing quite complicated skills, however it should be questioned whether the moot is necessarily the best mechanism for doing this. There are many other ways that presentation and critical thinking skills can be developed, and undoubtedly some will be more efficient in doing so than mooting. It would be unfortunate if alternative forms of development were forgotten because of a belief that mooting is the principal skills development vehicle for law.

Some institutions have begun to use mooting within the curriculum as learning and assessment tool rather than simply a developmental tool, with students given the choice of undertaking a moot instead of a piece of written coursework. This idea is based on the premise that at the heart of a moot is a problem. A moot encourages students to think carefully about this problem and its possible solutions. In order to put forward a possible solution it is necessary to be aware of its limitations and possible counter-arguments, reinforcing the fact that there is no single answer to a legal problem.

The use of problems in learning has, of course, a long history, with both problem solving learning (PSL) and problem-based learning (PBL) increasingly playing a role within the curriculum. The difference between PSL and PBL is arguably the emphasis of the problem. With PSL the problem tends to fit into traditional teaching methodologies, with the students creating solutions by rationalising the learning gained from their lecturer and their own reading. PBL differs in that it ordinarily encourages students to learn through solving the problem rather than following the lead of their teacher. A moot can easily be used in either PSL or PBL, especially where the subject of the problem is new to the student.

Our research found that the potential of mooting as a learning tool has not yet been fully recognised. Mooting clearly remains a popular activity, and it is gradually shifting into the curriculum, however it is important that it is not considered to be solely a professional skill but rather a way of encouraging students to think and apply the law. Keeping mooting in the first year of an undergraduate programme really does not provide these opportunities, but it is perhaps at the very least a start.

Last Modified: 4 June 2010