Is mooting not resource intensive?

Mooting, in its most basic form, is a very cheap form of teaching. It does not require any special resources, although a number of embellishments may be thought desirable – some law schools have spent a considerable amount of money creating a mock courtroom. Whilst this adds to the realism of the event, does it necessarily bring any educational benefits with it? A moot is more concerned with student performance than where they actually perform. Similarly, many universities have invested in advocates and judges gowns, but again these are not required for a moot to be successful.

A moot can take place in a classroom – it simply requires the tables to be adjusted so that ‘counsel’ can sit before a judge and present his/her submissions. Often a staff member sits as judge, but for many moots a student can perform this role – this could carry some educational benefits and advantages (see How many students are required?), in particular in an assessed mooting programme. Students could be asked, for example, to grade the students acting as advocates. If this is done in a structured way mooting begins to take on many of the characteristics of peer assessment, with students taking some responsibility for the grading of summative assessments. Other alternatives would be to require the student judge to write a reflection on the performance of the advocates. This could address issues such as how persuasive the student advocates were and what the judge would have done differently.

Staff time is considered to be one of the disadvantages of mooting (see What are the advantages and disadvantages?), but is it realistically any more intensive than other forms of assessment? A typical moot (involving four submissions) will usually take an hour. Is listening to four submissions any more staff intensive than reading four essays or participating in an hour long tutorial? The resources required depend on how a moot is being used and where. If mooting is being used simply as part of a learning and teaching process and is not assessed then it is unlikely that a moot will be more time consuming than a traditional seminar. Where it is used as part of a summative assessment then it is conceded that there may be additional resources (time, recording costs, journals etc), but these additional resources need to be balanced against the merits of using mooting as a form of assessment. There is increased recognition of the importance of a diversity of assessment methods and the value of assessments that enthuse students – a moot could be considered an example of this.

Last Modified: 26 July 2010