Through participation in Moot competitions, our law students develop real world advocacy skills and challenge themselves to strive for excellence in adversarial settings. Mooting is an excellent forum for students to develop proficiency in oral arguments, written facta, public speaking, and extemporaneous debate, while making connections with scholars, judges, and legal professionals from schools and cities throughout the country.
Each year, Robson Hall has the option to participate in as many as ten moot competitions hosted across Canada. Students try out for a spot on one of the moot teams through required classes, auditions and internal trials/competitions. The Moot committee then assigns students as appropriate to the different teams. Our students are recognized for their competitive spirit, oral advocacy and outstanding performances.
General Info: Moots & Competitions
The Michel Bastarache Moot is a French-language legal advocacy competition, which will be held annually, commencing in Ottawa in March 2019. The competition is named after former Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, Michel Bastarache, C.C., Q.C.
The Davies Corporate/Securities Law Moot is organized by the Toronto law firm Davies Ward Phillips and Vineberg LLP. The competition provides students with the opportunity to debate current legal issues in corporate and securities law.
The Donald G. H. Bowman National Tax Moot is the first competitive moot on taxation in Canada, and is named after the former Chief Justice of the Tax Court of Canada, the Honourable Donald G. H. Bowman. Over the course of two days, students compete in two preliminary rounds, semi-finals and the final moot. A panel of three judges select the winners, who are announced on the last day of the competition at a dinner. As of 2017, the competition is now bilingual.
The Harold G. Fox Moot was created to promote education in the intellectual property field, and to provide the opportunity for participants and jurists of the Supreme, Ontario, and Federal Courts, as well as experienced practitioners of intellectual property law to interact. It is named in honour of one of Canada’s leading intellectual property scholars and advocates, the late Harold G. Fox.
The Kawaskimhon (which roughly translates from Cree to “speaking with knowledge”) is a consensus-based, non-adversarial moot that incorporates Indigenous legal traditions with federal, provincial and international law. Mooters participate in roundtable negotiations on a particular topic in Indigenous law, representing their assigned parties.
The Laskin is an annual national bilingual moot court competition in Canadian administrative and constitutional law. Each year, approximately 19 of Canada’s 23 law schools participate in the competition.
The Gale Cup is an annual bilingual criminal/constitutional appellate moot competition, founded in 1974. Each year law students from across the country gather to moot a recent Supreme Court of Canada decision.
The Hockey Arbitration Competition of Canada allows law students who participate, the opportunity to apply and refine their legal education/skills in the simulation of a National Hockey League (NHL) salary arbitration. Connecting young sports law enthusiasts with some of the industry’s leading academics and practitioners, promotes and encourages the field of sports law.
The Walsh Family Law Moot Competition was established in 2012 to develop relationships between law schools and practitioners, and to encourage the study of family law. This national moot is open to all law schools. Teams of between two and four members are selected to compete in accordance with the Family Law Moot Competition Selection Policy. Leading Ontario family law practitioners and judges assist in drafting the moot problem and grading of factums, as well as judging the moot.
Third-year law students who participate had excelled in the Legal Negotiation course they took in their second year of law school. The main purpose of this competition is to develop superb negotiating skills in all Robson Hall graduates. Because all legal training and professional expertise is directed toward solving a client’s problems, negotiation is the primary tool to accomplish that. The winners of Robson Hall’s Negotiation Competition, go on to work with dedicated coaches at the National competition.
The Canadian Negotiation Competition provides a means for law students to practice and improve their negotiating skills. The competition simulates legal negotiations in which law students, acting as lawyers, negotiate a series of legal problems. The simulations deal with the same general topic, but the negotiation situation varies with each round and level of the competition. The winners of the CNNC will advance to the International Negotiation Competition.
The Solomon Greenberg Trial Moot Competition has a more than 50-year history as the annual in-house trial competition held at Robson Hall each fall. Winners go on to represent Robson Hall in the regional MacIntyre (Western) Cup Moot Competition, from which the winners proceed to the National Sopinka Cup.
The MacIntyre Cup is the annual regional trial advocacy moot competition for law schools in Canada’s western provinces. The cup is named for Dr. Malcolm MacIntyre, a well-loved and respected professor who formerly taught at UBC’s Faculty of Law.
Winners of the MacIntyre Cup and other regional competitions from a total of eight law schools representing various geographical areas across Canada, go on to compete in the bilingual National Finals hosted in Ottawa, called the Sopinka Cup. This annual trial advocacy competition is organized by The Advocates' Society and sponsored by the American College of Trial Lawyers. It is a two-day event that promotes training law students in the art of oral advocacy.