Preparation for moot court competition

Duration

6h Th, 15h AUTR

Number of credits

Lecturer

Jonathan Wildemeersch

Language(s) of instruction

French language

Organisation and examination

Teaching in the first semester, review in January

Schedule

Schedule online

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit contents

During their Bachelor's degree, students acquired a certain amount of basic legal knowledge. The two years of the Master's degree allow the student to specialise further. Whatever the professional career undertaken, every lawyer is confronted with problems that he or she must first translate into legal terms and then find a legally founded solution that leads to the conviction of the other party, whether at the end of a written or oral argument.

 
The course proposes to provide students with a first experience of this type through of a fictional or real litigation in European law, leading to a real oral hearing. It is open to all Master's students in law.


Classes are given partly in French and partly in English. However, written submissions for evaluation and pleadings are in English only. 

Learning outcomes of the learning unit

At the end of the course, the students should be able to:

In-depth analysis of a legal issue by

- identifying relevant facts and legal issues from a complex set of facts,

- assessing the relevance and importance of the facts in relation to the legal issues identified,

- identifying the relevant legal rules for the resolution of the dispute,

- by applying the relevant legal rules to the facts.

Conduct research related to a specific case on your own.

 
By the end of the course, the students should have improved their written and oral argumentative skills and be able to:

- distinguish between procedural writing and scientific writing,

- build legal arguments in support of a position in a dispute and assess the strength and weaknesses of its arguments,

- adapt the written argument for the purpose of an oral presentation of arguments in favour of a party to the dispute,

- respond critically to the other party's arguments.

 

At the end of the course, the students will also have the opportunity to develop their teamwork skills and knowledge of English.

 

Prerequisite knowledge and skills

It is strongly recommended to take the EU Procedural course (Contentieux européen).

Classroom sessions are conducted partly in French and partly in English. However, written submissions for evaluation and pleadings are in English only. 

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

During the first part of the course, the theoretical basis is taught (the structure of written submissions, the key elements of an oral pleading but also the specificities of the preliminary reference procedure, etc.). For these sessions, students are invited to read different documents in order to allow an interactive approach.

The second part of the course then focuses on the preparation of a procedural paper and the oral hearing (in English) on the basis of a reference for a preliminary ruling to the Court of Justice of the European Union. Students will be gradually encouraged to take ownership of the case and to develop legal arguments in support of the answers they arrive at. To this end, the students will be accompanied by the teaching staff (professor and/or assistants) during the course sessions. In order to make progress, the subject matter of the course requires a certain amount of independent work between the various course sessions. 

Subject to organisational constraints, a one-day visit to the Court of Justice of the European Union may be proposed.

Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)

Face-to-face course

Recommended or required readings

A collection of materials is provided at the beginning of the year. It can be downloaded from My ULiège or purchased from the Presses Universitaires.

Various recommended readings are then provided as the year progresses based on the studied case.

Exam(s) in session

Any session

- In-person

written exam AND oral exam


Additional information:

The examination consists of a "fictitious trial" based on the case worked on during the different course sessions. The written submission will also be evaluated and taken into consideration in the final mark.

Depending on the number of students, the written submissions and oral argument are done individually or in teams. In the latter case, the grade for the written submissions is common to the team, while the grade for the oral pleadings is individual.

The evaluation criteria are as follows:

• accuracy and legal knowledge and mastery of applicable rules,
• quality of the construction of written and oral arguments,
• ability to select the relevant knowledge to address the problem at issue,
• quality and sufficiency of the justifications given to support the proposed analysis or position defended,
• correct identification of the applicable legal rules,
• logical rigour of both written and oral reasoning, and
• using of a precise legal vocabulary.

Work placement(s)

Organisational remarks and main changes to the course

The results of the students are also likely to be taken into consideration in the selection of students who wish to participate in moot court competitions offered in Master 2 such as the "European Law Moot Court" (ELMC).

Contacts

margaux.clement@uliege.be

caroline.langevin@uliege.be

jwildemeersch@uliege.be

Association of one or more MOOCs

There is no MOOC associated with this course.

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