Procedures Media Law & Ethics COMS 400 This is a media law moot court site intended for students in the Media Law course (COMS 400) at Radford University. All cases are hypothetical. Cases (Mood court home page) Procedures (p. 2) Writing a brief (p. 3) Oral Argument  (p. 4) Judging a case (p. 5) Schedule

Moot Court procedures  backgrounder

The object of a "moot court" is to provide experience for students in research and presentation of legal arguments. This site is for a moot court for Radford University Media Studies Law and Ethics students enrolled in COMS 400.

The cases listed on the Web Court page are all hypothetical. They are made up. Do not, therefore, attempt to look up the specific case in question. Instead, research the question it presents and find similar cases. In some case descriptions, links to real cases are presented. Dont neglect those cases. A Lexis search is your best bet, although there are other links.
The overall procedures are fairly simple.

1. Pick a case in which you will represent the petitioner or the respondent. Tell me your preferences in class. The assignments will be confirmed on a first come, first served basis and posted on the main Web Court page. Once you have a case and have begun research, we will form into opposing teams of petitioners and respondenents. NOTE: Although you may choose the area you would like to research, you may not be able to choose the side of the case you would like to represent.
   
2. Research the case with your team. Most students like to work with a team of two to three people, although some prefer working alone. Either way is fine. We can't go with more than three per side of each case, however. Meet with your legal team, either in the virtual reality conference room of your choice or some location in actual reality. Develop a strategy. Research your case. The library database system, espcially Lexis, should be sufficient.  Find out what other cases have relevance in your area. Question the facts and get clarification from the instructor if you need it.

   Here are some basic approaches for researching the issues using Lexis:

   • Legal News -- type in relevant keywords (eg "copyright and domain name") and find out what's new.
   • Law Reviews -- These provide useful summaries of different issues but they are usually a year or so behind the times.
   • Get a case -- Find the court's opinion in a specific recent case and look at the way the arguments and the cases are cited. Go to the previous cases cited and look ath the arguments there. This method looks back in time.
   • Sheppards -- This service helps you decide if a case you are citing has since been overruled. You have to type in only the case number, for example: 376 US 254 . Here you will be looking at citations (which you would then look up in the "Get a Case" section.) These citations are listed as being Cited in a dissent or concurrence, Eplained or Distinguished (made different from). This is pretty deep water for undergrads but think about it as a tool lawyers use to see what came later. This method looks forward in time from a precedent setting case.

3. Write a brief. See page 3.  Basically, its a paper with a legal argument and some context, as you'll see. Use standard legal style, and all citations must be complete. For example: New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964) For more information, see how to write a brief. There are other examples of moot court papers that can be found with a simple web search for "moot court" through Lycos, Excite or others. Briefs will be scored on a scale of one hundred points and will be judged on the basis of research, presentation of concise and cogent arguments and writing style.
   
4. Present your brief and discuss   the case in class.