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Rules for Judging Moot Court Competitions
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TEXAS UNDERGRADUATE MOOT COURT ASSOCIATION
COMPETITION RULES
I. ELIGIBILITY
A. Participants must be enrolled in a full or part time undergraduate program in the school they represent. Participants who are presently or who have been previously enrolled in a postgraduate program are ineligible. Certification of eligibility must be provided at registration.
B. Teams must consist of two students and will argue in two preliminary rounds.
C. There shall be no substitute team members after the beginning of the first preliminary round. Any team unable to continue in the competition will forfeit subsequent rounds.
D. The host school reserves the right to establish a pre-registration deadline and to limit the number of teams that may participate from each school. Pre-registered schools will be notified 5 days before the competition if the number of teams will be limited.
II. STRUCTURE OF ARGUMENTS
A. Oral arguments shall be limited to a total of twenty minutes per team. The team assigned the position of Petitioner shall argue first, followed by the argument of Respondent, followed by an optional rebuttal by Petitioner.
B. Each team member must present a portion of the argument and must argue for a minimum of seven minutes. The remaining time may be divided at the discretion of the team. Petitioner may reserve up to three minutes for rebuttal. Only one speaker may represent rebuttal.
C. Before the beginning of the round, an official designated by the tournament director will ask each speaker to identify himself by name only, to announce the time division between the team members, and how much time, if any, will be reserved by the Petitioner for rebuttal.
D. Each team member shall be individually timed according to the announced division. Speakers may not ask for additional time. When the time card is shown, advocates must finish their sentence and sit down. On their own initiative, judges may extend an advocate's time to answer a question. Judges will be instructed to penalize teams who speak beyond the time limits or who request additional time.
E. Each speaker's presentation must be delivered orally. Competitors may not use exhibits of any kind. The oral presentation must be the product of the student participants. The role of the coach is to guide, direct, critique, and evaluate his team members; but under no circumstances should the coach write the arguments for his team. Any violators of this rule shall be subject to sanctions determined by the process described in VI below.
III. SEQUENCE OF ROUNDS AND SCORING CRITERIA
A. There will be two preliminary rounds and each team shall argue once as Petitioner and once as Respondent. Teams will be paired through a random selection process. Preliminary pairings will be announced following registration.
B. In the event an odd number of teams enter the competition, a bye round shall be held after the preliminary rounds.
C. Advancing to the medal rounds after the preliminary rounds is based on a win/loss record. Each judge shall designate whether the Petitioner or the Respondent has won that round and mark it clearly on the ballot. In the event it is unclear from the ballot what the win or loss record is for the Petitioner or Respondent, the host school shall make a determination based on speaker points and a plain reading of the intent of the judge on the ballot. Additionally, each team may earn up to 200 points--100 for each speaker. The top eight teams with the greatest number of winning ballots shall advance to the quarter-finals. In the event that there is a tie among a number of teams on the win/loss record, the highest scoring teams based on total speaker points for that team shall advance to the quarter-finals. In the event there is a tie for any of the eight places reserved for medal round, team ranking will be based on speaker points. In the event there is a tie on both win/loss record and speaker points for the eighth place team, there shall be a coin toss to determine which team advances.
D. The winner of each quarter-final round shall advance to the semi-final round, and the winner of each semi-final round shall advance to the final round. Teams from the same school may be paired against each other in the medal rounds (we do not break brackets for medal rounds). Advancing in the medal rounds is also based on a win/loss record. Each judge shall designate whether the Petitioner or the Respondent has won that round and mark it clearly on the ballot. In the event it is unclear from the ballot what the win or loss record is for the Petitioner or Respondent, the host school shall make a determination based on speaker points and a plain reading of the intent of the judge on the ballot. Additionally, each team may earn up to 200 points--100 for each speaker. In the event of a tie on the number of ballots given to the Petitioner and the Respondent, the team that advances will be the team with the highest total number of speaker points.
E. During the medal rounds a coin flip will determine the position in the case that each team shall argue. The higher the scoring team in the previous round shall call the coin.
F. The individuals receiving the ten highest scores in the preliminary rounds will receive honors as best oralists.
IV. GENERAL RULES OF COMPETITION
A. Team members and coaches may not reveal the identity of their school, either directly or indirectly, throughout the entire competition. Teams will be identified by team number only.
B. Families, friends and coaches are invited and welcomed to attend the competition sessions involving their school. These individuals may not communicate in any way which school is represented in the round or provide any information to competitors regarding the argument observed.
C. No team still participating in the competition shall attend practice or preliminary rounds or any other school's team or receive information from any person who was in attendance.
D. Participants and coaches are prohibited from speaking with judges before their prospective rounds.
V. OUTSIDE RESEARCH
This is not a research competition. Participants are allowed to refer to any and all of the cases contained in the information provided. Anyone who uses citations from any other cases shall be subject to sanctions determined by the process described in VI below.
VI. DISPUTE RESOLUTION
A. All challenges to the meanings and/or applications of these Rules shall be presented in writing as soon as reasonably possible, to the Chair of TUMCA Steering Committee, who shall then, as soon as reasonably possible consult the T.S.C. for their resolution of the dispute. The T.S.C. action shall be reported to all parties affected as determined by the T.S.C.
B. If challenges to Rules arise during a tournament, the tournament director
and all T.S.C. members attending the tournament shall consult and resolve the dispute. If a party feels that a long-range, permanent action is needed after the tournament, he shall act accordingly to the procedures spelled out in (A) immediately above.
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