John Marshall Moot Court Competition Rules -- 1999

RULES FOR THE EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL

JOHN MARSHALL LAW SCHOOL MOOT COURT COMPETITION

IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND PRIVACY LAW

¶ 1000. Organization and Administration of the Competition

¶ 1010. Teams

¶ 1020. Briefs

¶ 1030. Outside Assistance

¶ 1040. Service and Filing of Briefs

¶ 1050. Oral Arguments

¶ 1060. Preliminary Rounds

¶ 1070. Elimination Rounds

¶ 1080. General Provisions

¶ 1090. Requests for Interpretation of Rules and Problem

¶ 1100. Receipt of Moot Court Competition Mailings Presumed

¶ 1110. Announcements of Team Scores

¶ 1120. Awards

Appendix Certificate of Work Product and Service

¶ 1000. Organization and Administration of the Competition

The John Marshall Law School, Chicago, Illinois, sponsors the annual John Marshall Law School Moot Court Competition in Information Technology and Privacy Law ("Competition"). The Competition is a project of the John Marshall Law School Center for Information Technology and Privacy Law and is presented in cooperation with the Moot Court Executive Board of the John Marshall Law School. The Competition is conducted under the supervision of the Moot Court Competition Committee (Committee). The Committee has authority to interpret the Competition rules, resolve any complaints or disputes in connection with the Competition, and to amend these rules. Decisions of the Committee regarding any aspect of this Competition are final.

¶ 1010. Teams

(1) A team consists of two or three members. Only two team members can argue in each round but all team members may argue in the Competition.

(2) Team members must be matriculated in a full or part-time program in the law school they represent.

(3) No team member may hold a law degree.

(4) A law school may enter only one team and is registered when the Committee accepts the team's application and registration fee. The registration fee will not be refunded in the event a registered team withdraws or defaults.

(5) There will be no substitution of team members after a team has submitted its brief, except upon the written consent of the Committee pursuant to a petition for substitution based on good cause.

¶ 1020. Briefs

(1) Each team will elect to write its brief for the petitioner (or appellant) or the respondent (or appellee).

(2) Briefs shall conform to the Rules of the United States Supreme Court except as modified by these rules. A formal statement of jurisdiction is optional. All citations must be complete and in the form prescribed by the current edition of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation.

(3) Briefs will be scored on a scale of one hundred points and will be judged for scholarly research, presentation of concise and cogent arguments, writing style, and form. The brief score will remain constant throughout the Competition and will be used in computing the aggregate score for each round including the octofinal, quarterfinal, semifinal and the final rounds.

(4) The Measuring Brief:

(a) One brief will be conspicuously marked on the cover as "Measuring Brief." The measuring brief will be used solely for the purpose of judging the length of the brief and assessing technical compliance with the Rules of the United States Supreme Court and Competition rules. The combined length of the measuring brief's summary of argument and argument sections may not exceed 40 double-spaced pages with typed matter not to exceed 6.5 x 9 inches (165 x 229 mm) excluding page numbers. The paper used must be either 8.5 x 11 inches or 210 x 297 mm (A4 size). The type size may NOT produce more than 10 characters per inch and proportionally spaced fonts may NOT be used. The brief MUST be printed on only one side of a page.

(b) In computing the length restriction of Section 1020(4)(a), each inch of single-spaced footnotes, single-spaced quotations, and single-spaced headings will be counted as two inches of text. A penalty of two points for each page or portion thereof in excess of 40 pages will be deducted from the brief score.

(c) Appendices, if included, shall contain ONLY relevant text of cited authorities such as statutes, constitutions, and regulations, and shall NOT contain the Competition Record, excerpts from cases or law review articles, arguments to supplement the brief, or any other material. The same formatting requirements of Section 1020(4)(a) apply to this section unless a photocopy of permissible material is included.

(5) All copies of the brief must be identical to the measuring brief and may be reproduced by any duplicating or copying process which produces a clear black image on white paper of the same dimensions as the measuring brief. The copying process must not impart any significant change in the character size. No typesetting process may be used for printing either the contents or cover. EACH copy and the measuring brief must be fastened along the left margin with either three staples or plastic bindings.

(6) The law school and team members' names may appear ONLY in the lower right hand corner of the brief cover and nowhere else. A two-point penalty will be deducted from the brief score for failure to comply with this rule.

¶ 1030. Outside Assistance

(1) Participating law schools may not use the Competition Record in an intra-school competition for the purpose of selecting team members for the Competition. No team may receive any assistance in writing its brief or preparing its oral argument. This rule shall not prevent the faculty, administration, other students, or attorneys from participating with team members in preliminary general discussions of the problem, judging practice oral arguments, or providing general critiques.

(2) As part of the certification required by Section 1040(3), each team member will attest that the team's brief is solely the result of the named team members' efforts and that the team members did not receive faculty or other outside assistance contrary to the provisions of paragraph (1) of this section.

¶ 1040. Service and Filing of Briefs

(1) Filing with the Competition Committee

(a) Each team will file its measuring brief, six copies of the brief, and a 3.5" computer disk containing an electronic version of the identical text of the team's measuring brief, in Microsoft Word 97, Microsoft Word 6.0/95, or Word Perfect 5.1 format, with the Committee at the following address:

Moot Court Competition Committee

c/o Moot Court Board

The John Marshall Law School

315 South Plymouth Court

Chicago, Illinois 60604

The above items may be sent to the Committee via mail or express delivery service, and must be RECEIVED by the Committee on or before Tuesday, September 28, 1999. A penalty of five points will be deducted from the total brief score for each day that a brief is late. Briefs filed more than seven days late will NOT be accepted and the team will be disqualified.

(b) Briefs filed by teams from countries other than the United States will be considered timely even if received by the Committee after the date specified above, provided that (i) the submitting team provides documentation from an official postal service or express delivery service demonstrating that the above items were sent on or before Monday, September 27, 1999, and (ii) an electronic copy of the measuring brief is transmitted via electronic mail to the Competition Coordinator at cil@jmls.edu on or before Monday, September 27, 1999.

(2) Service upon Participating Teams

(a) Each team will serve one copy of its brief on each other participating team by first class mail or air mail. Each brief must be deposited in the mail on or before Monday, September 27, 1999, and the mailing date must appear on an official postal service postmark (not a postage meter).

(b) A team may elect to serve participating teams that are located in other countries by transmitting an electronic copy of its brief to each such team by electronic mail instead of mailing a hard copy. Each team shall designate an electronic mail address for receiving service of such briefs from other teams, and shall communicate this address to the Competition Coordinator, and to each other team upon request. Within three days of receiving service of a brief via electronic mail, a team must reply to the other team to acknowledge that the brief was received.

(c) A penalty of two points per day will be deducted for late service on other teams. A team that is subject to penalty under this provision and also under Section 1040(1)(a) will receive the greater of the two applicable penalties.

(3) Certificate of Service

With its measuring brief, each team will provide a certificate attesting that its brief was served on all participating teams in accord with Section 1040(2). This certificate also contains the work product certification required by Section 1030(2). (A blank certificate is attached.) This certificate MUST accompany the team's measuring brief but shall NOT be included as part of the brief.

(4) Supplementation of Briefs

A brief may not be corrected, revised, or supplemented after it has been submitted to the Committee.

¶ 1050. Oral Arguments

(1) Oral arguments will be held in Chicago, Illinois, on October 21, 22, and 23, 1999.

(2) Each team will be allowed thirty minutes for argument in each round. Each team may use reasonable discretion in allocating the thirty minutes between two oralists. The team representing the Petitioner may reserve up to five minutes of its time for rebuttal by addressing such request to the Court at the commencement of argument. Before commencement of oral argument, each team must advise the bailiff of the allocation of time between its members. The Court may interrupt argument for questions and in its discretion may allow additional time.

(3) Team members will announce their names and team number at the beginning of the argument but must not reveal the name of their law school. Judges must neither ask nor know the identity of the teams arguing before them either before or after grading the arguments.

(4) Bailiffs will signal by card when five minutes and two minutes remain in the time allotted for each speaker's argument and at the expiration of the time allowed.

(5) In determining the scores, judges may not take into consideration the merits of the case.

(6) Judges may not disclose winners or scores to anyone other than the Committee, but they may comment on the performance of each speaker.

(7) During a round, the two participating oralists may sit at the counsel table; if a team has a third member, that person also may sit at the counsel table. Other persons from the same law school may be present in the room but may not be seated with and may not confer with those at the counsel table. If the judges provide a critique at the conclusion of a round, only the members of each team and its coach and advisor, if any, may be present in the room during the critique.

(8) No team members, advisors, relatives or friends of team members or advisors may listen to the arguments of OTHER teams during the preliminary, octofinal, quarterfinal or semifinal rounds. This rule does not apply to a team subsequent to its elimination in the Competition.

¶ 1060. Preliminary Rounds

(1) Each team will argue in two preliminary rounds. No team will argue the same side of the case or against the same team in both preliminary rounds. The Committee will pair teams through a random selection process subject to the foregoing constraints.

(2) In each of the preliminary rounds, each student who argues will be scored on a scale of 100 points. Each team will receive a single oral argument score for the preliminary rounds which will be the average of the scores for the four oralists.

(3) The aggregate score for the preliminary rounds will be the total of the brief score and the average oral argument score.

¶ 1070. Elimination Rounds

(1) Octofinal Round

The sixteen teams with the highest aggregate scores from the preliminary rounds will qualify for the octofinal round. Ties in qualifying scores will be broken in favor of the team having the higher brief score. If two teams have the same brief score, ties will be broken in favor of the team with the highest aggregate point difference over both opponents in the preliminary rounds.

(2) Quarterfinal Round

The winner of each octofinal pairing will advance to the quarterfinal round.

(3) Semifinal Round

The winner of each quarterfinal pairing will advance to the semifinal round.

(4) Final Round

The winner of each semifinal pairing will advance to the final round.

(5) Scoring

In each elimination round, each team that argues will be scored on a scale of one hundred points. Each team's average oral score will be added to its brief score for its aggregate score. The winner of each pairing will be the team with the higher aggregate score for that round and will advance to the next round. Ties will be broken in favor of the team having the higher brief score.

(6) Pairings and Side Selection

A seeding chart for the sixteen teams advancing to the octofinal round will pair the team with the highest aggregate score from the preliminary rounds against the team with the lowest aggregate score from the preliminary rounds and the remaining teams will be paired in the same manner, i.e., second highest aggregate score from the preliminary rounds versus the second lowest aggregate score from the preliminary rounds, etc. As teams are eliminated, the remaining teams will be paired in each round according to their position on the original seeding chart. For each elimination round, the selection of sides will be by coin toss.

¶ 1080. General Provisions

(1) All competitors are required to conduct themselves in a responsible and professional manner in preparing briefs and presenting oral arguments. The Committee will investigate and resolve any reported infractions of these rules. Every participating school and its representatives are bound by these rules.

(2) The final round of the Competition, and possibly other rounds, will be videotaped. Copies of the videotape will be furnished to the finalist teams, The John Marshall Law School Library, and the Competition archives. By entry in the Competition, each participant consents to the videotaping of oral arguments for this purpose, and agrees that the copyright in oral arguments and in all briefs submitted for the Competition is owned by The John Marshall Law School.

¶ 1090. Requests for Interpretation of Rules and Problem

(1) The Committee will make all necessary interpretations of the rules and the record on appeal. All questions must be submitted to the Committee in typed form and must be postmarked on or before August 20, 1999.

(2) The Committee will respond in writing and inform each participating team of the questions and interpretations. Such interpretations will be final.

(3) All correspondence should be mailed to:

Mary Ruane

Moot Court Competition Coordinator

Center for Information Technology & Privacy Law

The John Marshall Law School

315 South Plymouth Court

Chicago, Illinois 60604

¶ 1100. Receipt of Moot Court Competition Mailings Presumed

Each team is presumed to have received any Competition mailing addressed to the Contact Person indicated on the team's registration form. In addition, the Competition Rules and other information concerning the Competition will be posted on the Competition’s web site at http://www.jmls.edu/info/moot/.

¶ 1110. Announcements of Team Scores

Oral argument and brief scores will be mailed to all participants soon after the end of the Competition.

¶ 1120. Awards

(1) The winning team will receive a $2,000 cash scholarship and a trophy on behalf of its law school. The second place team will receive a $1,000 cash scholarship and a trophy on behalf of its law school. Individual certificates will be issued to all team members.

(2) The Competition's best briefs will be announced at the awards banquet. Awards will be given for the best petitioner's brief and the best respondent's brief, and both will be published in The John Marshall Journal of Computer & Information Law.

(3) An award for best oralist will be presented at the awards banquet. This award will be based on preliminary round scores and only participants who argue in BOTH preliminary rounds are eligible.