Preamble

These Rules of Competition were in effect during last year’s Stone Moot Court Competition. Where appropriate in your submissions, you may cite these rules as Stone Moot Ct. R. x.

Rules

1. Eligibility: Any second-year, third-year J.D. student, or L.L.M. at Columbia Law School is eligible to compete, irrespective of their participation in previous year’s Stone Moot Court competitions.

2. Teams: Any eligible person may compete individually or with another eligible person in a team of two.

3. Rounds:

a. The Qualifying Round of the competition will be held during the fall semester. In the Qualifying Round, each individual participant or team shall submit a brief and participate in two oral arguments on the issues presented in the Qualifying Round Record. The Director shall set the deadline for submission of briefs not less than one month after distribution of the record. The Director shall also, in consultation with the Moot Court Executive Board, the Judges, and all participants, set the dates for oral arguments on non-consecutive nights in the same week.

b. The Elimination Round of the competition will be held during the spring semester. The eight highest scoring individual participants representing the petitioner in the Qualifying Round, and the eight highest scoring individual participants representing the respondent in the Qualifying Round, will advance to the Elimination Round. In the Elimination Round, each individual participant or team shall submit a brief and participate in two oral arguments in the Elimination Round Record. The Director shall set the deadline for submission of briefs not less than one month after distribution of the record. The Director shall also, in consultation with the Moot Court Executive Board, the Judges, and all participants, set the dates for oral arguments on non-consecutive nights in the same week.

c. The Final Round of the competition will be held not more than one month after the Elimination Round. The two highest scoring individual participans representing the petitioner in the Elimination Round and the two highest scoring individual participants representing the respondent in the Elimination Round shall compete in the Final Round. Each individual participant or team shall submit a revised brief and participate in an oral argument on the issues presented in the Elimination Round Record. The Director shall set the deadlines associated with participation in the Final Round based on the date selected for the Final Round by the Law School administration.

4. Scoring:

a. All individual participants and teams will be scored on their brief and their oral argument. Each brief shall be scored by each judge on a 60-point scale, and each oral argument on a 40-point scale.

b. The brief and oral argument scores each individual participant or team earns from each judge shall be averaged, and the average brief score, average oral argument score, and any points awarded based on the disposition of the case shall be added to obtain the individual participant or team’s score in the room. The maximum score an individual participant or team may earn on each night of oral argument in the Qualifying or Elimination Round shall be 100.

c. In case of a tie for the fourth-highest cumulative score in the Qualifying Round or a tie for the highest cumulative score in the Elimination Round, the individual participant or team with the highest cumulative brief score shall advance. In the event a tie still exists, the individual participant or team with the highest oral argument score shall advance. If neither tie-breaking method results in a clear winner, the Director shall decide which individual participant or team advances based on random chance.

5. Briefs:

a. Briefs submitted in the Qualifying Round shall contain an argument section of not less than 20 and not more than 40 double-spaced pages per team. Briefs submitted in the Elimination Round and the Finals shall contain an argument section of not less than 30 and not more than 50 double-spaced pages per team.

b. Briefs shall include a title page that includes the name(s) of the author(s) and identifies the party whom they represent.

c. All briefs shall contain the stipulations set forth in the subject record as well as a stipulation identifying the author or authors of the brief and, if the latter, which sections each author wrote.
d. Briefs shall contain a table of contents and table of authorities as well as any other preliminary sections the authors deem necessary.

6. Oral Arguments:

a. Each petitioner and respondent shall each have 20 minutes during which to present his or her oral argument.

b. Subject to approval by the judges, the parties may argue the first issue and then the second issue. The parties should conference before the argument begins to coordinate the structure of their argument so that they may submit it to the judges for approval at the start of the round.

c. Each petitioner is entitled to reserve a maximum of 5 minutes for rebuttal.

7. Credit:

a. Participants will receive a Stone Moot Court on their transcript.

b. Participants can receive Minor Writing Credit by submitting their briefs to Professor Philip Genty for approval.

8. Penalties:

a. Withdrawal from the Stone Moot Court after the deadline set by the Director may result in a notation on the withdrawing student’s transcript.

b. Failure to submit briefs on time may result, at the discretion of the Director, in a scoring penalty.

9. Prizes: The best brief in the Final Round and the best oral argument in the Final Round will be recognized, as is tradition, by the Columbia University School of Law. The individual participant or team to have obtained the highest cumulative score in the Qualifying and Elimination Rounds will also be recognized.