Practice Meets Theory: Using Moots as a Tool to Teach Human Rights Law

Abstract

Law school lecturers have long known that moots represent a useful way of teaching students about advocacy and courtroom skills. However, it is not widely recognised that moots also represent an opportunity to further students’ knowledge and deepen their learning of substantive areas of law. This article analyses for the use of moots to promote experiential education about human rights through the practical application of human rights laws to ‘real’ problems. It analyses three different human rights moot competitions conducted in the United States of America, Africa and Australia, in order to evaluate different approaches and determine best practice when it comes to human rights mooting.

Keywords: moot, legal education, law students, human rights, law school curriculum, African Human Rights Moot, Inter-American Human Rights Moot, Castan Centre Human Rights Moot

JEL Classification: K00, K19