What?

A moot is a simulated courtroom. 

Law students from the new Internal Environmental Moot course offered at the University of Saskatchewan (U of S) will be competing in the SKAEL moot as their final project. Practitioners from the community volunteer as judges to evaluate the factums (written arguments) and oral arguments. Teams typically consist of 2-3 students and compete against their peers.

When and Where?

The moot is usually around March and takes place at the University of Saskatchewan, College of Law.

Why?

Every two years, students at the U of S can apply to compete in the national environmental law moot in Ontario, the Willms & Shier Environmental Law Moot.  This is an amazing opportunity for students, but not everyone who applies will get to compete and it only runs every second year. We wanted to give students more chances to use and develop their advocacy skills in the field of environmental law, so we decided to run our first-ever local environmental law moot in the off-year of the national moot.

Through the moot, we hope students get a feel for what it is like to practice environmental law. We also want to give practicing lawyers an outlet for their interest in environmental law if they are unable to practice in this area. Lastly, we want to raise awareness about interesting cases that have real implications on our ability to use the law to protect the environment.