A Justice Site
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Created: December 5, 2001
Latest Update: January 4, 2002
jeannecurran@habermas.org
Moot Court 2002
Copyright: Jeanne Curran, Susan R. Takata, and Individual Authors: December 2001.
and Individual Authors. "Fair Use" encouraged.
Moot Court 2000 represents the first time in fifteen years this program has been unfunded. That means we don't have an Instructionally Related Grant to support our printing and travel costs. I didn't apply for one last Spring. Now, that can either represent a disaster or a celebration. I'd like to celebrate it. Having been specially funded, by student vote, for fourteen years, it seems to me we ought to be able to survive on our own. It helps that I've retired, and have more time. It helps that there are so many of you who have learned so much that you are able to take on some of the responsibilities. And it helps tremendously that Academy of Criminal Justice Science is holding its annual meetings right here in Anaheim, our own backyard.It doesn't cost a lot to get to Anaheim. And our own campus will help us with the "hidden costs" of moving chairs and cameras to where they're needed, and putting up signs and printing programs. We'll need to keep careful records of all the costs because they're real, even if hidden. And in August there should be another chance to perform at the American Sociology Association Annual Meetings in Chicago. For that, we will need to raise funds for travel.
So, off we go on our first unfunded semester to see what the real world is like when we're on our own. Welcome to feel like the prodigal son, and don't forget to smell and savor the pomegranates. 1
The Undergraduate Moot Court Moot Court is a traditional law school program. We have an undergraduate version because my students asked for one when I finished law school. They surprised me. I wasn't even aware they knew about moot court. I had participated in the Jessup International when I was at UCLAW because I figured I would need to know about everything that was if I was to translate it into the undergraduate curriculum in a way that our local communities could use effectively. Well, that was part of the reason. Another part was that the 1985 class couldn't find a fourth member for the team, and they wanted to participate. I'm not even sure I knew it was a competition.
Like most things that happen serendipitously, that Jessup Competition turned out to guide fifteen years of my life. Moot court provides practice in the actual oral argument of cases before a tribunal. I think that's what my students were after, oral practice. And moot court is a great way to get that practice. When taken in good faith, not just as a competition, it provides invaluable practice in thinking on your feet. More later this afternoon. I need lunch. jeanne . . .
Endnotes 1. Reference is to Andre Gide's Retour de L'Enfant Prodigue Return of the Prodigal Son. The pomegranate was the symbol of the exotic foreign places to which the prodigal son ventured. Gide was strongly influenced by Nietzsche.