Litigation guidelines
1. Oral Rounds of the Moot are comprised of two heterogeneous dispute resolution elements – litigation and mediation, and shall be conducted in Moscow during the dates of the competition at the designated venue of the Moot.
2. All registered teams which have submitted their memoranda are eligible for the Oral Rounds.
3. Each team shall register from two (2) to four (4) litigators and one (1) mediator at the time of Registration, thus the minimum number of team members is three (3) students. The maximum size of any team is correspondingly five (5) students excluding the team's coaches and/or academic advisors, the number of which is limited to two (2).
4. During Litigation Rounds the litigators act as counsel (1st chair, 2nd chair).
5. Each round of Litigation requires at least two (2) members from each of the opposing teams to be present and ready to act as litigators. Team mediators or any other third parties are not allowed to join the teams during Litigation rounds.
5.1. Switching chairs and roles from round to round in Litigation is acceptable, however team members may switch their roles only during the breaks between the rounds.
5.2. The teams' coaches and/or academic advisors may be present during Litigation Rounds but shall abstain from any kind of oral, written, digital or non-verbal interaction with their teams.
5.3. Once the Litigation round has commenced, no interaction between the team and their coaches and/or academic advisors is allowed. Consultations with team coaches and/or academic advisors are only permitted during the breaks between rounds.
6. The jurisdiction, applicable substantial and procedural laws for the Litigation are listed in that year’s Moot Problem.
7. The order of each Litigation round is as follows: claimant - respondent, claimant's rebuttal - respondent's sur-rebuttal.
7.1. The duration of each Litigation round shall be sixty (60) minutes where each party is given twenty five (25) minutes to present their arguments and five (5) minutes for rebuttle/sur-rebuttal, said time being distributed between its two speakers at the team's discretion.
7.2. At the beginning of each Litigation round one team member introduces all the team members present, announces the litigators and their position (1st chair, 2nd chair). This introduction should not one (1) minute per team. This time is not included in the sixty 60 minutes of the round.
7.3. A team is given a total of twenty five (25) minutes to present its main arguments and answer the Panel's questions excluding the time for introduction, and a total of five (5) minutes to present its rebuttal or sur-rebuttal, including time needed to answer the Panel's questions.
7.4. Time keepers appointed by the Organizer show the elapsed time to the teams and the Panel at intervals of five (5) minutes and where there are five, four, three, two, one and zero minutes left for the team.
7.5. Video and/or audio recording of any Litigation round including the Grand Finale is not allowed.
7.6. The Litigation rounds consist of Qualifying Rounds, Quarter Finals, Semi-Finals and the Grand Finale.
8. The Qualifying Rounds are composed of separate Litigation and Mediation rounds depending on the number of participating teams. Each team pleads twice during their round, once for the claimant and once for the respondent. The schedule is determined before Oral Rounds during the registration of the teams via casting of lots.
9. The eight (8) teams with the highest scores in the Qualifying Rounds proceed to the Quarter Finals. Where a tie takes place, the team with the highest score of the cumulative memoranda proceeds to the Quarter Finals.
9.1. In Quarter Final 1 the team with the highest (1st) overall score meats the team with the eight (8th) highest overall score (litigation + mediation).
9.1.1. In Quarter Final 2 the team with the second (2nd) highest overall score meets the team with the seventh (7th) highest overall score (litigation + mediation).
9.1.2. In Quarter Final 3 the team with the third (3rd) highest overall score meets the team with the sixth (6th) highest overall score (litigation + mediation).
9.1.3. In Quarter Final 4 the team with the fourth (4th) highest overall score meats the team with the fifth (5th) highest overall score. (litigation + mediation).
9.2. The winning teams of the Quarter Finals proceed to the Semi-Finals.
9.2.1. In Semi Final 1 the winning team of the QF1 meets the winning team of the QF4.
9.2.2. In Semi Final 2 the winning team of the QF2 meets the winning team of the QF3.
9.2.3. The winning teams of each Semi-Final proceed to the Grand Finale.
10. Where the teams have pleaded against each other in any of the previous Litigation rounds, such teams shall plead in the opposite role should they meet in any of further Litigation rounds.
11. At any stage of their performance a team may request extra time in order to complete their arguments or to answer the Panel's questions at the cost of penalty points as listed in Unified Evaluation Criteria.
12. To ask for extra time a team member raises their hand with a corresponding time-card distributed to the teams at the beginning of each round. No oral permission is necessary, minutes are added automatically upon said action.
13. The rebuttal should address only the issues raised in the respondent’s main arguments, and where the sur-rebuttal should address the issues raised in the claimant’s rebuttal.