Mirror Magazine

Mirror Magazine

Bringing out the finer points of law
Natasha Fernandopulle meets the Sri Lanka Law College team, that emerged runners-up at the international moot competition held in India this year
A moot… some of us may not be quite aware of this term. A moot is a trial where a fictitious case is given, where the facts are presented and you are asked to argue the case out.

Recently, a group of three students from the Sri Lanka Law College, represented Sri Lanka in India at a moot competition. They had to argue their case in a typical court room atmosphere. The three students were Induni Punchihewa (awaiting results of the third year) Maheshika Silva (third year student) and Irshad Hameed (second year student).

This inaugural competition was called the ‘M. K. Nambyar SAARCLAW International Moot Competition’ and was held from February 11 – 13, at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. The Law College students emerged runners-up in the International round of the competition and secured the fourth best memorial mark, at the competition.

A memorial encompasses the arguments prepared for the moot. The team had to submit their arguments to the organisers before the moot and it is then given to their opponents two hours prior to the moot.

In a moot in Sri Lanka you only present arguments for one side, whereas in an international competition you have to appear for both sides. The subject matter of the moot was insolvency laws, which is a discipline of company/mercantile law.

One challenge the trio faced was that they had to refer to Indian law, “You have common ground, but at the same time you are not as familiar with the local law but we managed to work around it,” said Irshad, adding, “We felt somewhat disabled but once we dealt with it, we took it up as a challenge.”

Sri Lanka was invited for the competition in August last year and the moot problem was received in early December and they had around two months to prepare for the competition.

Speaking to Induni she said, “The law moots here are a little less aggressive,” adding, “you couldn’t run away from the question and we were grilled a lot!” On the topic of the settings of the courtroom, Irshad said that certain practices and customs in the moot system are different. He also said that India is far more traditional and that it was like a typical ‘text book’ court room.

“The first round was a bit shaky but by the second round we were much more confident,” said Induni. She also said that they had quite a bit of competition.

Moving away from the competition for a while, we spoke to both Irshad and Induni about their short stay in India and the people they met. They arrived in India a day ahead of the competition and were taken on a sight-seeing to ‘India Gate’, in Delhi. Both Induni and Irshad said their stay was “a lot of fun.”

As a team and as friends they said that they got along quite well, in spite of being from different batches and age groups. Induni also said that it was “a new experience all together.”

Irshad said that Induni being the oldest from the lot gave them quite a lot of assistance. The counsel were Irshad and Induni and they did all the arguing, while Maheshika was the main researcher.

Finding sources was difficult because they had to research on Indian Law. A few Supreme Court Judges, the Attorney Generals’ Department and many members of the private bar assisted them. SPIL (Students for the Promotion of International Law) also supported them. SPIL is an association of law students and a Chapter Member of the International Law Students Associations, Washington.

“Mooting gives an opportunity to participate,” said Irshad, you are used to following lectures and learning theory but through mooting one is exposed to the practical aspect of what one learns. It is a “confidence boost,” said Irshad, “You come out far more confident as speakers.” He also said that it was a good experience on foreign ground.

Top