THE 2008 PHILIP C. JESSUP INTERNATIONAL LAW MOOT COURT COMPETITION SUMMARY OF JESSUP RULE CHANGES

New Definitions and Registration Requirement

There are new definitions for Coach, Faculty Advisor, and Team Member. Registration is required for all three. See the Definitions and Official Rule 3.4.

School Eligibility

The Rules provide that in certain exceptional cases and with the special permission of ILSA’s Executive Director, a school with an international relations program may field a team. See Official Rule 2.1.

Team Composition

The Rules clarify that no more than five students may contribute to the work product of a team. After a team has five members, substitutions cannot be made. See Official Rules 2.2. and 3.6.

Tem Member Eligibility

Consolidating the old rules on eligibility and ineligibility, the Rules now state that to be eligible, a team member must:

1) be pursuing a law degree or an international law-related degree;

2) be enrolled as a full-time or part-time student at an eligible institution;

3) not  have engaged in the practice of law in any jurisdiction after graduating from any type of law degree program.

See Official Rule 2.2.1.

Outside Assistance Rules

The general principle is that teams must research, develop, write, and edit its own legal and factual arguments on its own. The Outside Assistance rules have been significantly revised to clarify what types of assistance a team may receive from individuals who are not a member of the team, including advice received from Faculty Advisors and Coaches, from other teams, and from Jessup courses, and in practice rounds.  See entire Official Rule 2.4.

Practice Rounds

The Rules specifically allow teams to engage in practice rounds.  Practice rounds that are judged by individuals who are not team members are subject to certain limitations.  For example, such practice rounds must be held after the submission of Memorials. Individuals who have obtained access to the Bench Memorandum may not judge practice rounds. In addition, team members may only receive general commentary and feedback from practice round judges. This does not, however, limit the content of the questions that may be asked during the practice round itself. See Official Rule 2.4.6.

Jessup Courses

Requires special permission of the Executive Director if any team members enroll in a class which uses the current year’s Competition Problem as a subject matter. See Official Rule 2.4.5.

Changes in Registration Information

Teams are under a continuing obligation to report changes to registration information. This obligation continues until the team is eliminated from the competition. See Official Rule 3.6.

Memorial Submission

The Rules specify that Teams must submit Memorials by sending a single email message, with both Memorials attached, addressed to the ILSA Executive Office and the National or Regional Administrator (if any), by 11:59pm, the team’s local time, on the day of the deadline specified in the Official Schedule. See Official Rule 6.1.

Memorial Format

The Rules specify that Memorials may be in Microsoft Word 2003 or Microsoft 2007 format. See Official Rule 6.2.1.

Paper Size

The Rules require Memorials to be in Letter Paper Size (8.5 x 11 inches). The ILSA Executive Office has adopted a single paper size in order to facilitate printing for the International Tournament and to facilitate the distribution of Memorials to judges for grading in both the International and Qualifying Tournaments. While competitors in A4 nations must abide by this rule by setting their documents to Letter Size, Administrators in A4 countries may choose to print Memorials on A4 size paper for purposes of the Qualifying Tournament. Teams are advised that a failure to comply with this rule will result in the reformatting of the Team’s memorials by the ILSA Executive Office without any opportunity given to the Team to fix formatting irregularities.  See Official Rules 6.2.2 and 6.2.3.

Parts of the Memorial

Now considered to be within the Pleadings section of Memorials, the Conclusion/Prayer for Relief is no longer a separate part of the Memorial.  See Official Rule 6.3.1.

Citation Requirement

The Rules require that footnotes be used to cite to the source of propositions made in the Memorials. Endnotes are no longer permitted. See Official Rule 6.5.

Citation Form

The Rules require that citations in the Index of Authorities and Footnotes provide “a description of each authority adequate to allow a reasonable reader to identify and locate the authority in a publication of general circulation.” The ILSA Executive Office will post a list of recommended citation systems on the Jessup Website. See Official Rule 6.6.

Memorial Penalties

· The penalty for late submission of Memorials has been changed to “5 points for first day, 3 points per day thereafter.”

· The penalty for font and line spacing violations has been changed to “1 point per violation, up to a maximum of 5 points.”

· The penalty for failure to include an enumerated part or inclusion of an enumerated part has been changed to “2 points for each part.”

· The penalty for substantive legal argument outside of approved parts of the memorial has been changed to “2 points.”

· The penalty for an improperly formatted Index of Authorities has been removed. Judges will be asked to review Indexes as part of their assessment of a team’s use of citations.

· The penalty for excessive length of Pleadings has been changed to “5 points per 100 words over the limit.”

See Official Rule 11.1.