Academic debate is the most popular style of debate in Japan and the United States. In parliamentary, each debate round has a different topic, and debaters usually have little time to prepare. Debaters usually must argue from intuition and general knowledge, not from evidence. In academic debate, however, debaters have one topic for an entire year. Therefore, they research the topic extensively, and wheel around boxes of evidence for use in their rounds.
Parliamentary debate has few rules and uses little jargon.
Academic debate, however, has very sophisticated debate theory, with lots of specialised vocabulary. In many academic debates, debaters talk about the rules of debate and the nature of debate theory more than the actual topic. Debates are decided by the argumentation alone. Parliamentary debate balances substance with style. There are advantages to both styles.