Ireland’s First Moot Courtroom is Launched at UL’s Law School

published on Jun 17th, 2010

Pictured: Mr Ray Friel, Senior Lecturer at UL

A purpose-built courtroom has been opened on campus enabling law students to experience the cut and thrust of the legal coalface.  It is the first time that law students in this country will get a hands-on courtroom experience while in college.  Costing €130,000, the courtroom has all the traditional trappings, including a judge's bench, prosecution and defence stands,12-seat jury area, witness stand and a 60-seat public gallery.  To enable each student assess their performance in court, the facility will have five strategically placed CCTV cameras.

Senior Lecturer at UL's School of Law, Mr Ray Friel said: "It is a standard courtroom and we call it a moot courtroom. Law schools in the U.S. have these moot courtrooms, but UL is the first law school to have one. Everything is recorded on the cameras and the students can look at the way they deal with a case in the court setting.  It will show how individual ‘jury' members react if a witness says something and what the judge says.”

Mr Friel, who also teaches law at the University of New Hampshire and University of Kansas in the U.S., said the simulated cases will give the students invaluable experience.  He added "It will bridge the teaching and what happens in court and integrate theory with the practical.”  The 550 law students at UL will commence doing cases at the moot courtroom from the start of the new academic year in September and it is intended to invite members of the judiciary to preside at some of the student trials.

Article courtesy of Jimmy Woulfe, Irish Examiner