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UC Irvine Law Moot Court Competition

Moot Court is a competition in which students write a brief and argue a case before an appellate court, usually the United States Supreme Court. UC Irvine Law's Moot Court program is a student-run program overseen by a faculty advisor. Its focal point is an intra-school competition, in which students write their briefs in teams of two, but argue as individuals.

Students advance in the competition based on a combination of their brief and oral argument scores. Awards are given to the teams writing the top two briefs and to the two students reaching the final round of the competition.

Who Can Participate?

The competition is open to all UC Irvine Law LL.M. students, second-year UCI Law J.D. students and to all third-year UCI Law J.D. students who have not previously advanced beyond the preliminary round in a UC Irvine Law Moot Court competition. Prior competitors who did not advance past the first round are eligible to participate again. All rounds of the competition will be judged by distinguished members of the bench and bar.

Admitted Students Weekend Moot Court Finals

The 2023-24 Moot Court Finals will take place on Friday, April 5th, 2024 from 3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Spring 2024 competition page >

External Moot Court Competitions

Additionally, UC Irvine Law will continue to send teams to national and international competitions. UC Irvine Law will only send third-year students who have successfully competed in the intra-school competition during their second year.  No exception will be granted.

Students can access the school’s External Competition Policy and application form on the External Competitions page. 

View a partial list of external moot court competitions >

Benefits

Learn about the benefits of competing in Moot Court.

After careful reflection, the Law School has decided that there will be no competitions involving first-year law students. The first year of law school has enough pressures without adding competitions and there are ample opportunities for students to participate in Moot Court, Mock Trial and Negotiations/Transactional competitions in their second and third years.