Harcourt Chambers Oxford Family Law Moot 2024
People:
The Harcourt Chambers Oxford Family Law Moot is a family law moot organised by the Oxford Law Faculty in collaboration with Harcourt Chambers, a leading family law chambers, home to a highly respected team of specialist family law advocates, including eight Kings Counsel and over fifty barristers at all levels of seniority and experience, practising in all areas of family law. The moot is sponsored and judged by experienced barristers and KCs from Harcourt and on occasion members of the judiciary. As one of the few internal moot court competitions that engages with family law, this is an excellent opportunity for students to gain insight into this fascinating area of law, showcase their advocacy and legal research skills and enhance their CVs for the purpose of future applications for work experience or pupillage.
Harcourt Chambers Oxford Family Law Moot 2024
This year’s moot problem is about adoption, with a focus on the question of ‘threshold’, namely the point at which the state acquires power to intervene in the lives of private individuals for the purpose of safeguarding children.
Please find access to the Competition Case and the Competition Rules as documents attached below.
The 2024 Semi-Finals and Grand Final of the Harcourt Chambers Oxford Family Law Moot are scheduled to take place in person from 11.30am on Saturday, 27 April 2024 (venue to be confirmed). Preliminary rounds will take place via MS Teams.
**We are delighted and excited to announce that the Grand Final will again be judged by Lord Wilson of Culworth, former Justice of the UK Supreme Court**
This competition is open to all matriculated undergraduate and master’s students pursuing a taught law degree at the University of Oxford.
To enter the competition, participants must, individually or in teams of two:
register by completing this form and submit it together with their skeleton arguments by 5.00 pm on 1st March 2024 to ayushi.vashisht@law.ox.ac.uk and vreynolds@harcourtchambers.co.uk with the subject line as Harcourt Chambers Family Law Moot 2024.
Skeleton arguments must address all issues raised by the competition case and be no longer than 1500 words for each side (12-point Times New Roman font; text 1.5 spacing; character spacing normal; margins of 2.5cm on all sides of the page). PDF bundles of the key authorities to be referred to much also be provided at the point of submission of skeletons. Please refer to the rules for further details.
Members of the winning team will be awarded mini-pupillages with Harcourt Chambers. All participants are warmly invited to attend to watch the Grand Final and will be given feedback following the competition. On the day of the Grand Final students will also have an opportunity to participate in an informal discussion session about a career at the Family Law Bar with senior and junior members of Harcourt.
Refreshments will be provided.
Timeline
- 1st March 2024, 17.00: Deadline for registration and submission of skeleton arguments and authorities bundles
- 6th – 8th March 2024, early evening: Remote Preliminary Rounds (dates and times to be notified)
- 27th April 2024, 11.30 – 17.30: Semi-Final and Final Rounds
For more information, contact the Graduate Mooting Assistant at mooting@law.ox.ac.uk.