university offers opportunity to aspirant lawyers
30 April 2008

The University of Pretoria’s Law Faculty is giving aspirant lawyers, learners currently at high schools across Pretoria an opportunity to use their existing knowledge of legal arguments at mock court sittings. The University’s Faculty of Law has organised a Moot Court Competition for schools across Pretoria and surrounding areas. 

The competition, which will take place on 24 May at the university, is aimed at exposing aspirant law students to a court room environment to gain basic skills in litigation.  According to the university, the competition will adopt an approach of a role-playing exercise.  Teams will comprise of two learners each will act as advocates appearing before a simulated court, arguing the opposing sides (called “applicant” and “respondent”) of a hypothetical case. 

This is aimed at exposing more learners to the advocacy skills necessary for a career in law. “The grand prize will be non-transferable financial assistance to the members of the winning team for the first year of legal studies at the University of Pretoria, within three years after the competition,” said competition coordinator Elzet Hurter.

The initial rounds will happen within the schools with the faculty’s support and the final round will be on 24 May. Specialist practitioners and judicial officers will serve as judges in the final round, adding to the prestige of this competition. For more information on the competition, rules and application form, learners can visit www.up.ac.za/law and click on Opportunities.

www.buanews.gov.za