It's something like a mock trial where students plead cases in an atmosphere meant to mirror what real-life attorneys face in a court of appeal or before the Supreme Court. It's an opportunity to test your oral advocacy skills. It helps develop confidence and sharpens your ability to argue your point. But that's just one aspect to mooting, states Toope. It's also quite a striking intellectual exercise.
Students have to prepare factums for the competitions which summarize their legal positions.
The factums are modelled after their equivalents in real-life court cases and they count for a large percentage of the mooters' marks. Sometimes a factum is written for the appellant's side, sometimes for the respondent. Often, half of a mooting team is ready to fight for the defence, while the other gears up to argue against it. I've argued some cases in New York appellate court and, in terms of the content of the arguments, it's exactly the same. There is one difference with real court cases, though.