First Year Assignment Schedule & Moot Info

2021-2022 First-Year Assignment Schedule

First year students have assignments  their Indigenous Settler Legal Relations, Legal Research & Writing, and Transnational Law classes, as well as a factum and moot in their Criminal Law class. The Assistant Dean, Students works with the faculty members teaching these courses to prepare a common assignment schedule.  All assignments are due on the date indicated on the schedule below.

2021-2022 Assignment Schedule ***Last Updated January 10, 2022

Note: This schedule is subject to change. Please direct any questions about the assignment schedule to Assistant Dean, Students, Kaila Mikkelsen. Students requiring academic concessions should consult the Assistant Dean, Students well in advance of the due date for an assignment or an examination date.

2022 First Year Moot Information 

*Last updated January 10, 2022.

The 2022 moots will be held virtually. Students should review and follow the Rules of Court of the Supreme Moot Court of British Columbia (Virtual Proceedings) and the instructions set out in the Frequently Asked Questions (Virtual Proceedings) to ensure they are familiar with the Moot Court procedure for virtual mooting.

All Allard Law first-year students, working in teams of two, argue a moot problem in the second term before the Supreme Moot Court of the University of British Columbia (the “Moot Court”).

The moot takes the form of an appeal based on a given set of facts, and the reasons for judgment of a lower court or the reasons for an order or award of an administrative board or tribunal. As the moot is not a mock trial, there are no witnesses or submissions of evidence. The party appealing the decision is the appellant; the party responding to the appeal is the respondent. Two students represent the appellant, and two represent the respondent.

The moot is comprised of two parts: a written factum, and oral arguments. There are strict rules regarding the form in which a factum must be presented and the procedure for the oral arguments, though there is room for substantive creativity in both the written and oral components. The first-year moot has adopted a set of rules modeled on real-world rules, similar to those of the British Columbia Court of Appeal, called the Rules of Court of the Supreme Moot Court of British Columbia  (the “Rules”). Before preparing the factum and the oral arguments, each student should read the Rules carefully, in addition to reviewing any materials on persuasive writing and other skills to which your instructors refer them.

Approximately 150-200 judges sit on the Moot Court bench each year.  All judges are practising or former lawyers in British Columbia, who generously volunteer their time to review moot factums, hear oral arguments, and provide useful feedback to students on each. 

The moot proceeds in accordance with the Rules and the First Year Assignment Schedule, more generally as follows:

1. the students representing the appellant prepare their factum, file it with the designated Moot Court registrars, and serve it on the students representing the respondent;
    
2. the students representing the respondent prepare their factum, file it with the designated Moot Court registrars, and serve it on the students representing the appellant;
    
3. the students representing the appellant and the respondent will work together to produce a joint book of authorities, and file it with the designated Moot Court registrars;
    
4. the Moot Court registrars send a copy of each factum, the joint book of authorities, along with the moot problem and any other required supporting materials, to each of the judges hearing the respective appeal;
    
5. the Moot Court registrars send a copy of each factum, along with the moot problem and any other required supporting materials, to each of the judges hearing the respective appeal;
    
6. the judges review and consider each of the factums before the oral arguments commence; and
    
7. both teams of students argue the case before the judges.

All students should refer to the First Year Student Assignment Schedule for relevant factum due dates, informative lectures and moot dates.

Contact Information:

After reviewing all of the information above, any students with further questions regarding the First Year Moot may contact:

• Moot Court Registrars (firstyearmoots@allard.ubc.ca) in respect of any administrative or procedural questions;
• Barbara Wang, Manager, Student Experience (wang@allard.ubc.ca) in relation to academic concessions and accommodations;
• Nikos Harris (nharris@allard.ubc.ca), with any general questions regarding factums and written appellate advocacy;
• Lisa Martz (lmartz@mail.ubc.ca), with any general questions regarding oral advocacy; and
• their respective Criminal Law Professor in respect of any substantive legal questions related to the moot problem.