This post is about a particular extra-curricular opportunity you can join and enjoy while studying the LLM at University of Kent.
Two weeks ago I decided to participate in ELSA European Human Rights’ mooting competition. ELSA (no, this time it is not about the Disney princess) is the European Law Students Association and is the world’s largest law student and young lawyer network, spanning 42 countries and consisting of 38,000 members.
ELSA is at UoK as one of the many societies we have available and grants Kent students access to all the opportunities and advantages of the ELSA network. One of the activities they offer is to participate in 3rd edition of the European Human Right Moot Court Competition (you can check all the information in relation here). This is an International Moot Court Competition (sometimes Wikipedia really clarifies a lot – although not for essays).
The University of Kent has two teams competing this year (4 members each), comprised of LLM and LLB students. Mooting requires considerable time and effort, as well as time management skills (as you still have to fulfill your academic responsibilities), but it helps you gain practical experience in the field and it is an incredible opportunity to improve your university curricula too.
This year’s case is about same-sex marriage, discrimination due to sexual orientation, recognition of motherhood in same-sex relations and a few other problems that we have to solve by understanding the principles and implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights (as well as adding tons of case law). You can check the case if you are interested!
We are getting help in weekly workshops (we are very thankful for it) about formal requirements (although no-one can offer us help with the legal aspects), as this is theoretically the same as pleading a real case in the European Court of Human Rights itself.
Mooting is a very useful activity while you are studying Law (even as an undergraduate) and University of Kent offers many different mooting activities in different fields, from internal mooting to national and international competitions. So it doesn’t matter the field you would like to specialize in, as it is very possible that you have your perfect moot to join. As an example, you can check mooting with the Kent Law Temple Society (the society for aspiring barristers).
About the HR ELSA Mooting Competition, we are currently working in the written phase and the 16 best teams will go to the oral phase in Strasbourg in February. The winner of the final round will be granted a one-month traineeship at the European Court of Human Rights. We have less than a month left. Wish us luck!