Skeleton argument & reference material
- Each team must prepare a skeleton argument which should not exceed one sheet of A4 paper and should be typed with a font no smaller than 12 points. The skeleton argument will also list the legal authorities on which the team intend to rely.
- A team may list a maximum of eight authorities in total (though less than eight authorities may be used and may even lead to more successful argument). These authorities will generally include cases and legislation. These may also include extracts from legal literature, such as official reports, government or parliamentary papers, academic articles, or practitioner's texts. Reference to student textbooks should be avoided. All references must be cited if a team wishes to rely upon them. A single case that has been decided in more than one court counts as one authority. Where a reference to case A is made within case B these count as two authorities and the full text of each should therefore be provided, if a moot team wish to rely on both cases. An exception is made where the moot team is responding to an intervention from the bench which necessitates a particular reference to an uncited item of legal material. In such circumstances the mooter should explicitly state that the case does not form part of the bundle but it will be necessary to refer to it in order to respond meaningfully to the intervention.
- All authorities to be relied upon must be cited on the face of each team's skeleton argument, and each team must prepare a 'bundle' containing photocopies of all of the authorities on which they intend to rely.
a) Cases, law reports, and official transcripts should be provided in full. Extracts are not permitted.
b) Legal literature - it is not necessary to provide a copy of the whole document provided that a fair impression of the author's views is given by the extract provided. - No later than 12.00, one working day before the moot is scheduled to take place, each team must supply the other team, and the organiser, with a copy of their skeleton argument, and list of authorities. This is done by e-mailing the list of authorities to a dedicated IL Moot Court address, for distribution to the Clerk and Judge. The skeleton and authorities list must also be e-mailed to the opposing team, whose contact details will be provided when the draw is announced. Late submission of the skeleton arguments and bundles of authorities will not be permitted unless in exceptional circumstances. Late submission could result in notification of late submission to the Judge and, in rare cases, disqualification.
- Moot teams should bring three bundles of authorities to the moot. One for themselves. One for the Judge. One for the opposing team. Bundles can be marked with coloured tabs and passages can be highlighted to make the citation of authorities more efficient. This saves time and allows for more fluent argument.