Law School Rankings: Why not consider Moot Court performance?

With law school ranking techniques being perennially popular and Moneyball type analyses gaining ground, what might be another way of assessing the relative capabilities of a law school’s students and graduates?

It seems to me that it would be great if we had this situation in which law schools had student teams that competed against other law schools’ student teams from across the nation in tournaments which showed off their lawyering and advocacy skills. Wow! That would provide us with some valuable and statistically verifiable assessment of how well a law school’s students might perform after graduating.

Head to head law school competition – what a great source of information for law school rankings like US News & World Report or Leiter’s rankings. Too bad that this situation does not exist – oh wait, actually it does exist, they’re called “moot court competitions.”

From my own days in law school I recall witnessing a lot of “David and Goliath” type scenarios – i.e. obscure, lower tier schools performing very well in these situations. Is there a source for this information (moot court competition rankings)? Would anyone find such information useful if it was available? It seems that this has “moneyball” written all over it. See my shameless promotion of UT’s (the other UT) Evidence Moot Court Team after the jump.

I was actually a member of UT’s first Evidence Moot Court team back in the day. We did pretty well, but not nearly as well as subsequent teams. Below is some text from the UT Law moot court webpage on how the Evidence team has faired since the early 1990s (when we started). I might add that the competition typically includes a number of teams from the top 20 USNews rankings.

EVIDENCE MOOT COURT TEAM The Dean Jerome Prince Evidence Moot Court Competition is sponsored by the Brooklyn Law School where it is held each March. The competitions’ problem focuses on an issue defined by the Federal Rules of Evidence, and students wishing to apply for the team must take Evidence prior to or concurrent with their application. The team’s coach, Professor Neil Cohen, has led the team to three national championships and numerous second place finishes, as well as several first and second best brief awards.

National Champions: 1993, 2000, 2001
Second Place: 1997, 2002
Best Brief: 1997, 2000

sumber http://lawandcourts.wordpress.com/

Unpar Raih Juara I Kompetisi Peradilan Semu

Depok (ANTARA News) – Universitas Parahyangan (Unpar), Bandung, Jawa Barat, berhasil meraih juara pertama pada Moot Court Competition (Kompetisi Peradilan Semu) yang memperebutkan Piala Mutiara Djokosoetono V, yang acara finalnya dilakukan di kantor Mahkamah Konstitusi, Sabtu malam.

Sedangkan untuk juara kedua diraih oleh Universitas Islam Indonesia (UII), Yogyakarta, dan Juara ketiga diraih oleh Universitas Diponegoro (Undip), Semarang.

“Melalui ajang ini diharapkan dapat menghasilkan angin segar bagi hukum Indonesia,” kata Putra ketiga dari Djokosoetono, Purnomo Prawiro, di Depok, Jabar, Minggu.

Artinya, lanjut dia para mahasiswa diajak untuk bisa ikut memecahkan permasalahan yang ada di masyarakat. Melalui kompetisi tersebut bisa menghasilkan penemuan baru dalam bidang hukum Indonesia.

“Setelah mendapat teori selama kuliah mereka dapat mempraktekkannya dalam peradilan semu tersebut, dan dapat membawa angin segar bagi hukum di Indonesia,” kata Purnomo yang juga menjabat sebagai Presiden Direktur, Blue Bird.

Ia berharap usai kompetisi ini dapat memberikan sumbangsih pada hukum Indonesia. “Kegiatan tersebut hendaknya bisa menjadi ajang mahasiswa agar dapat menerapkan ilmunya,” kata Purnomo yang juga menjabata sebagai Ketua Majlis Wali Amanah Universitas Indonesia (UI).

Salah seorang mahasiswa Unpar, Stevanus merasa senang dengan dapat menjuarai kompetisi tersebut. Dikataknnya dalam perlombaan tersebut mempersiapkan selama tiga bulan untuk membuat surat dakwaan.

“Kompetisi peradilan semu merupakan kompetisi yang berbeda dengan kompetisi-kompetisi lainnya,” katanya.

Sedangkan Rektor UI, Gumilar Rusliwa Soemantri mengatakan kompetisi ini sebagai bentuk dari pendidikan hukum. Dari ajang ini, ia berharap dapat tercipta SDM yang berkualitas yang memang mengerti akan kedudukan hukum.

Dalam kompetisi ini mengambil tema Pembangunan Hukum Nasional Secara Berkelanjutan Dalam Menghadapi Tantangan Global.

Kompetisi Peradilan Semu tersebut dilakukan selama tiga hari (8-10 Mei 2008). Pada acara pembukaan yang dilakukan di Kamis (8/5) malam di Balai Sidang UI, yang dihadiri oleh Menteri Hukum dan Hak Azasi Manusia (Menhukham), Andi Mattalata.(*)

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sumber : http://news.antara.co.id/arc/2008/5/11/unpar-raih-juara-i-kompetisi-peradilan-semu/