Mooting Competition
We are very pleased to say that the Mac.Rob Mooting Competition has had a successful second year of running! Mooting is a rare opportunity for High School students where students are able to act as legal representatives to a hypothetical legal scenario. These scenarios are designed to be legally ambiguous, so that both parties can present a reasonable argument about how the law should be properly interpreted and applied for the benefit of their client.
After many weeks of preparation, lots of new content to learn, and a intense case to analyse; here is a message from some of the 2023 Mac.Rob Mooting Competition finalists, Tanveer, Keen and Manya:
On May 12th, at 3:30pm, the senior school’s mooting finals began. We were sitting on the edge of our seats, listening carefully to our adversaries, using every fact available to convince the judge to rule in our favour.
You must be wondering: What is mooting anyways?
Mooting is a mock court proceeding which stimulates a court hearing. Groups of appellants and respondents are given a problem to be analysed and argued before a judge. In our moot, we were given a criminal case and had to debate whether the sentence given was too lenient or excessive.
The best part of mooting was that it helped us further understand the complex nature of the legal system we live in. The support from our teams was invaluable in answering challenging questions. We formed new friendships with people across year levels and classes.
The challenges we faced were hard, but only helped us grow. What we found the most challenging was to be able to construct logical arguments from the limited yet large influx of information that was given for this case. This had to be done while still keeping in mind some potential questions that might be asked by the judge as well as any points that could be used against us by our adversaries. This, alongside the delivery of the arguments within a strict time frame tested our rhetorical speaking skills and our ability to improvise.
Around 30 Year 11s and 12s were involved in seniors mooting, with 8 participants making it through to the finals. At the end of an arduous trial, the respondent team had managed to push through and secured the win in the Macrob mooting finals, 2023.
Congratulations to everyone who participated and those who made it to the finals!
Appellants: Keen 11F, Rachelle 11J, Jasmine 11J, Jessie 11J
Respondents: Manya 12H, Chloe 11F, Tanveer 11F, Frenanda 11I
We would just like to thank everyone who participated and signed up for the 2023 Mac.Rob Mooting Competition. This year we had over 200 students sign-up, and although we could only cater for a maximum of 120, we hope to allow many more students to participate in this wonderful opportunity in 2024. We would also like to take this opportunity to say a massive thank you to Mr. Corr and Ms. Grotjan for your time and support throughout this program, and to extend that thank you to all the teachers and staff for your support along the way. Finally, a big thank you to the amazing Mac.Rob Mooting Competition Organisational team: Alyssa W, Ananya B, Katherine P, Katrine L, Yoko T, Zimo Z, and Abigail O, your hard work and dedication in the planning process, as well as, running the Moots have been so phenomenal and I couldn’t thank you enough.
The Mac.Rob Mooting Competition always has aimed to provide this opportunity to the enthusiastic students here at Mac.Rob. We believe and strive to continue to improve student experience and opportunity. Thus, we hope that many students have had a wonderful time this year, and many more feel eager to participate in the coming years. Either way, keep your eyes peeled for some changes as we work to expand this opportunity, but more importantly, get excited for the 2024 Mac.Rob Mooting Competition!
Amanda, Tanveer, Keen and Manya