CENTER FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & PRIVACY LAW
HOSTS
THE TWENTY-FIRST
ANNUAL
JOHN MARSHALL LAW SCHOOL INTERNATIONAL MOOT COURT COMPETITION IN
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND
PRIVACY LAW
OCTOBER 17-19, 2002
RULES
FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL
JOHN MARSHALL LAW SCHOOL MOOT COURT COMPETITION
IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND PRIVACY LAW
CLICK HERE to download the Rules and Certificate of Work Product form (Adobe PDF file).
§ 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 Conduct Requirements
§ 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, to 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 (17th) edition of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation.
A team may elect to use ALWD Citation Manual: A Professional System of
Citation in lieu of The Bluebook; a team that so elects must include a
footnote to that effect in the Table of Authorities section of its brief.
(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 final
rounds.
(4) Brief Format and 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 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 (letter size)
or 210 x 297 mm (A4 size). All briefs MUST be formatted using 12 point
Times New Roman font. The brief MUST be printed on only one side of a
page.
(b) 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 excerpts from cases or law review articles, arguments to supplement
the brief, or any other material. The same formatting requirements of
§ 1020(4)(a) apply to this section unless a photostatic copy 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 that 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. EACH hard 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.
(7) By submitting briefs, teams consent to publication of their briefs
online and agree to assign copyright ownership to The John Marshall Law
School upon request.
§ 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.
This rule shall not prevent the faculty, administration, other students,
or attorneys from participating with team members in preliminary general
discussions of the problem.
(2) After the brief has been filed, teams may receive assistance in the
preparation of their oral arguments. However, this assistance is limited
to judging and critiquing oral argument practices. Competitors are solely
responsible for argument formulation and strategy.
(3) As part of the certification required by § 1040(4), 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 paragraphs (1)
and (2) of this section.
§
1040. Service and Filing of Briefs
(1) Filing deadline: The filing deadline for briefs is September 16,
2002.
(2) Filing with the Committee: Each team will file its measuring brief,
six hard copies of the brief, a digital copy of the brief on either a
3.5 inch floppy disk or CD, and an email copy of the brief, on or before
the filing deadline, 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
ITCenter@jmls.edu
The digital
copy must contain the identical text of the measuring brief and it must
be in Microsoft Word format.
The email copy may be submitted as an attachment in either Microsoft Word
or PDF format to the Competition Coordinator at ITCenter@jmls.edu.
The hard copies must be sent to the Committee via registered or certified
Priority Mail, for teams from the United States, or via Air Mail, for
teams from other countries. The date of filing will be established by
the postmark date (not including a private postage meter), if an official
and legible postmark appears on the envelope, or by the date of receipt
at John Marshall if no such postmark appears. 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. A penalty of two points will be deducted
from the total brief score for failure to comply with the submission procedures
in this rule.
(3) Service on other teams: The Committee will post the emailed copy of
each team's brief on the Competition's official Web site (http://www.itmootcourt.com).
The Committee's receipt of a readable emailed copy of the brief will constitute
effective service.
(4) Certification of service. With its measuring brief, each team will
provide a certificate attesting that its brief was emailed to the Competition
Coordinator in compliance with § 1040(2). This certificate also contains
the work product certification required by § 1030(3). (A blank certificate
is attached.) This certificate MUST accompany the team's measuring brief
but shall NOT be included as part of the brief.
(5) 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 17, 18,
and 19, 2002.
(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 (or appellant)
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. To minimize the likelihood
that judges will learn the identity of teams, advisors and other persons
accompanying a team must not associate with team members in the courtroom
or elsewhere while in view of judges. Advisors and other persons accompanying
a team should not be present in a courtroom if their presence is likely
to compromise the anonymity of one or both competing teams.
(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 or its designee. They may comment on the performance of speakers
or teams after the scores have been submitted for tabulation.
(7) During a round, only the participating oralists and the third member
of a team, if any, 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 seated at the counsel table. If the judges
provide a critique at the conclusion of a round, only the team members
and advisors 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.
(9) The Committee may direct that any round or portions thereof be recorded
or transmitted using any medium now known or later developed. By participating
in the Competition, all teams consent to such recording or transmission.
§ 1060. Preliminary
Rounds
(1) Each team will argue in two preliminary rounds. Barring extraordinary
circumstances, 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 one hundred points. Each team will receive a single
oral argument score for the preliminary rounds that 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. The seeding chart
will not be disclosed to competitors until after the conclusion of the
Competition.
§ 1080. General
Conduct Requirements
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.
§
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
via email on or before August 30, 2002.
(2) The Committee will inform participating teams of the questions and
answers by posting interpretations after August 30, 2002 on the Competition's
official Web site (http://www.itmootcourt.com). Such interpretations will
be final.
(3) All requests for interpretation should be sent to:
Moot
Court Competition Coordinator
ITCenter@jmls.edu
§
1100. Receipt of Moot Court Competition Mailings Presumed
Each team is presumed to have received any Competition mailing or email
addressed to the contact person indicated on the team's registration form.
Teams are responsible for providing and updating their contact person's
current email address.
§ 1110. Announcements
of Team Scores
Oral argument and brief scores will be posted on the Competition's official
Web site (http://www.itmootcourt.com) after the end of the Competition.
§ 1120. Awards
Trophies will be awarded to the first place, second place, and semifinalist
teams; to the teams that submitted the best petitioner's brief and the
best respondent's brief; and to the best oralist, as determined by oral
argument scores in the preliminary rounds. The winning briefs will be
published in The John Marshall Journal of Computer & Information
Law. A participant must have argued in both of the preliminary rounds
in order to be eligible for the best oralist award.
CERTIFICATE OF WORK PRODUCT AND SERVICE
FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL
JOHN MARSHALL MOOT COURT COMPETITION
IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND PRIVACY LAW
We, the undersigned,
certify that the _________________________ (School's Name) brief is solely
our work product and that we have not received faculty or other outside
assistance contrary to the provisions of § 1030(1) and (2) of the
Rules of this Competition.
We also certify that a copy of our brief has been emailed to the Competition
Coordinator in accordance with § 1040(2) of the Rules of this Competition.
TEAM MEMBER #1 __________________________
(Printed or typed name)___________________________________________
(Signature)
TEAM MEMBER #2 __________________________
(Printed or typed name)___________________________________________
(Signature)
TEAM MEMBER #3 __________________________
(Printed or typed name)___________________________________________
(Signature)
DATE _____________________________________
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