In the radical mooting project, we have been discussing hierarchies and biases that are reproduced in legal education, and more specifically in mooting exercises and competitions. This has allowed us to think more broadly about (a) the courtroom as a place of race, class, and gender bias, (b) the Western-centric mode of international mooting competitions, (c) potentials and pitfalls of disrupting these biases through strategic advocacy and litigation.

Through reading texts together, film discussions, and a speaker series we have identified particular themes of courtroom and mooting bias. Our discussions have varied in scope and breadth. From thinking more generally about the legal form, we have considered modes of reproduction of privilege, to the more mundane questions of dress and decorum in the courtroom. Recurring themes have been performance and the limitations of disruption. Our next step is to conceptualise what radical mooting exercises might look like. In our discussions, we have asked ourselves whether there are ways of thinking about mooting as a space that prepares law students for anti-imperial, feminist, and anti-capitalist action?

Discussions have been coordinated between students across different years of study, from first year students to PhD students. In addition, we have been in conversation virtually with Masters students at the Vreije University Amsterdam, which has enriched our discussions. The students involved are associated with the group Critical Lawyers at Warwick, CLAW.

Academic lead: Dr Christine Schwöbel-Patel

Student lead: Chanel Williams

Texts we have read/mentioned:

2019/2020 Reading Group

- ‘Imperialist Morality’, Interview with Jean-Paul Sartre on the War Crimes Tribunal, New Left Review (1967)

- Henning Grunwald, ‘Justice as “Performance”? The Historiography of Legal Procedure and Political Criminal Justice in Weimar Germany’ (2012) 2 InterDisciplines, Journal of History and Sociology 46-78

- Jayan Nayar, ‘Taking Empire Seriously: Empire’s Law, Peoples’ Law and the World Tribunal on Iraq’ in Amy Bartholomew, Empire’s Law: The American Imperial Project and the ‘War to Remake the World (Pluto Press 2006)

2020/2021

- Henning Grunwald, Courtroom to Revolutionary Stage (OUP 2012)

- Christine Schwöbel-Patel, ‘Mooting: A Critical View and a Radical Proposal’ forthcoming in Critical Legal Pocketbook, Counterpress 2021

- Warwick Law Society Moot Bible

- Wouter Werner, ‘Moot Courts, Theatre and Rehearsal Practices’, in Backstage Practices of Transnational Law, ed. Lianne Boer and Sofia Stolk (Routledge, 2019),

Films we have viewed/discussed:

- ‘Terrors Advocate’, Barbet Schroeder (2007)

- ‘Small Axe – Series 1: Mangrove’, Steve McQueen (2020)

From here on, we plan to:

· Conceptualise a set of exercises for a radical mooting exercise that can be used by other students.

· Document our insights so far through a possible set of podcasts, blog entries, and/or a co-authored academic article

· Attend and contribute to an international disruptive mooting meeting with students