• Student Orgs Home
• UNC Law Home
• Law Library
• My Carolina Law

Craven Competition Rules

2010 Official Craven Rules (Downloadable Copy)

Preface:   The Craven Competition Bench reserves the right to make decisions regarding any aspect of the competition.  The Bench also reserves the right to amend these rules at any time before or during the competition.

 

A.    TEAMS

Each law school may enter one team that shall be composed of two or three students.  No additional teams may be entered.  The first TWENTY-FOUR (24) teams to register on-line at http://studentorgs.law.unc.edu/mootcourt/craven/teamregistration.aspx beginning November 6, 2009 at 12:00 p .m. will be tentatively registered pending receipt of their entry fee via USPS mail which must be RECEIVED by November 20, 2009.  The next FIVE (5) teams that register will be placed on a waiting list.  After the on-line registration form is submitted, the main contact will be notified via email as to whether your team is one of the first twenty-four or is on the waiting list.   

3.      Substitution in Membership of Teams

A school may not substitute team members at any time after the brief has been submitted.  Where a team member will not be able to argue a given round, such as for observation of Saturday as the Sabbath, the other team members must fill the gap created by his/her ineligibility.  The Craven Bench does reserve the right to allow a substitute to participate in oral arguments on a showing of extreme hardship by the requesting team.  An extreme hardship is classified as a sudden, immediate and unavoidable circumstance that makes the participation of a team member impossible, including but not limited to a family or personal emergency immediately before or during the competition.  Failure to receive official permission from the Craven Bench to change the roster will result in the disqualification of the offending team.

 

After the field has been selected for the Competition, each team will be randomly assigned to serve as counsel for either Petitioner or Respondent for purposes of writing the brief.  This assignment is done so that each team will be guaranteed argument on brief and off brief in the two preliminary rounds of the competition.  The assignment of Petitioner or Respondent will be provided via e-mail on the date that the problem is made available on-line.

    2.   Length and Specifications

Teams shall double-space lines between text, except footnotes and long quotations which may properly be single-spaced.  The type size used shall produce no more than 10 characters per inch (10 cpi).  The Craven Bench recommends that each team use Times New Roman, 12-point font.

Briefs shall not exceed forty (40) one-sided pages in length, excluding the following:

·         Cover;

·         Questions Presented;

·         Table of Contents;

·         Table of Authorities; and

·         Appendices.

Any partially filled page shall be counted as a full page.  Briefs shall be fastened with three staples along the left margin.  Pages should not exceed 8 1/2 by 11 inches, with typed matter not exceeding 6 1/2 by 9 inches (i.e. 1-inch margin minimum on all sides).

Exceeding the page limit, including the improper use of margins and/or font size shall result in a deduction of 2 points for each page or partial page which exceeds the forty page limit (no maximum deduction).

3. Format

Briefs shall be in the format required by Rule of the Supreme Court of the United States, except that teams should omit a formal statement of jurisdiction.  All citations shall be complete and in the form prescribed by the Bluepages of The Bluebook.  See, The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation B1-B13 at 3-23 (Columbia Law Review Assn. et. al. eds., 18th ed. 2005).  

Team Letter Designation:  For identification purposes, each team shall be assigned a letter that shall be printed in the lower right corner of the cover page of the brief.  Briefs shall not be signed, and no material serving to identify a team or its members (other than the Team Letter Designation) shall appear anywhere within or on the brief itself. 

Appendices may be used to recite the text of statutes, constitutional provisions, regulations, and materials that are not available generally.

4. Certification

By submitting briefs to the Craven Bench, each team member certifies that its briefs have been prepared in accordance with the Craven Competition Rules and that these briefs represent the work product, proofreading, and evaluation of ONLY the members of the team named on the roster.

5. Submission

a)      Each team shall:

·         Submit its brief electronically as a PDF file and as a Microsoft Word document;

·         Submit four (4) hard copies of its brief;

·         Submit a compact disc (CD) containing one (1) copy of its brief as a PDF file and one (1) copy as a Microsoft Word document.

b)      Submission of Brief Electronically

Briefs must be sent as an email attachment no later than 5:00 P.M. on Monday, February 1, 2010to cameronl@email.unc.edu OR scalise@email.unc.edu or another email address designated by the Craven Bench and communicated to teams before that date.  The format of the brief must be both Microsoft Word and it must be a PDF file. 

Any team whose brief is emailed later than 5:00 P.M. on Monday, February 1, 2010 shall be assessed a late submission penalty of fifteen (15) points, which will be deducted from the overall score of the brief. 

c)      Submission of four (4) Hard Copies of Brief

Each team shall submit four (4) hard copies of its brief to the following address:

Craven Bench

Holderness Moot Court

University of North Carolina School of Law

Campus Box # 3380

Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3380

Briefs must be sent PRIORITY MAIL by the United States Postal Service postmarked no later than Wednesday, February 3, 2010.  Any team whose mailed brief is postmarked later than February3, 2010 shall be assessed a late submission penalty of ten (10) points, which will be deducted from the overall score of the brief. 

d)     Submission of Compact Disc

Each team shall submit, along with the hard copies of its brief, a compact disc containing one (1) copy of the brief as a PDF file and one (1) copy of the brief in Microsoft Word format.  This copy shall be identical to the hard copies, so that printing a copy produces an exact duplicate of the hard copies.  Teams should take care to ensure that the submitted diskette does not contain a computer virus. 

The submitted compact disc should have a label affixed indicating the following:

·         Name of the Team's School;

·         Designated Team Letter;

·         Side Represented (Petitioner or Respondent); and

·         Name of the File Containing the Brief  

Teams are not required to send a copy of each brief to opposing teams.  The Craven bench will post briefs according to Team Letter Designation.  The briefs will be available for viewing, downloading and printing by 5:00 P.M. on Friday, February 5, 2010.

6. Revision of the Briefs

A team may not revise its brief after its submission to the Craven Bench.

7. Scoring

Qualified persons selected by the Craven Bench will score all briefs. 

8. Participation

Three team members may compete in the overall competition, but only two team members may participate in any single round of oral argument.  Two team members must argue in each round.  All team members that will participate in oral arguments are expected to have participated in preparing the brief.  Teams may not have "Brief Specialists" who participate in preparing the brief but do not argue.  This rule is subject to the provisions of Rules A3.

 

C.     ORAL ARGUMENT

1. Preliminary Rounds  (Wednesday, February 24, 2010 )

Rounds 1 & 2:

Arguments shall commence on Wednesday, February 24, 2010 at 6:00 P.M.   The competition format will begin with two preliminary rounds - the first round "on brief" and the second round "off brief" for all teams.  Pairings for the two preliminary rounds of the competition will be determined randomly, except that no two teams will be paired against each other in both preliminary rounds.  Both preliminary rounds will be held on Wednesday, February 24, 2010.  See Section D for Scoring.

At the end of Round 2, all teams will be scored according to the standards in Section D, article 1.  Teams will then be seeded from 1 to 24 according to the sum of their scores from the day's two rounds.   Teams seeded 1^st through 8^th will receive a bye into Round 4 and not compete in Round 3.  Teams seeded 9^th through 24^th will compete in Round 3.  All teams will be assigned to a bracket based on aggregate scores from briefs and oral arguments from Rounds 1 and 2.

This bracket will determine all pairings for the remainder of the Craven Competition.  This bracket will be posted for review in the Rotunda area of the Law School.  Times and room assignments for succeeding arguments shall be announced by the Bench in the Rotunda area at the time that the teams have been seeded.  See Section D for Scoring.

2. Elimination Rounds   (Thursday, February 25, 2010 )

Round 3:

To begin the second day of competition, the SIXTEEN (16) teams seeded 9^th through 24^th will enter an elimination round, Round 3, with match-ups being determined by seeding.  Each team will be assigned the role of either Petitioner or Respondent for this round as determined by a coin flip. 

Upon completion of the third round, scores will be compiled.  These scores will be used to reduce the field of TWENTY-FOUR (24) teams to SIXTEEN (16) teams.  Only brief scores and oral argument scores from Round 3 will be used to calculate a team's score for this round.  See Section D for Scoring.

Round 4:

The second elimination round will reduce the field from SIXTEEN (16) teams to EIGHT (8) teams.  Only brief scores and oral argument scores for Round 4 will be used to calculate a team's score for this round.  See Section D for Scoring.  Each team will be assigned the role of Petitioner or Respondent for this round as determined by a coin flip. 

3. Elimination Rounds   (Friday, February 26, 2010 )

Quarter-Finals:

The Quarter-Finals will reduce the field from EIGHT (8) teams to FOUR (4) teams.  Only brief scores and oral argument scores for this Quarter-Final round will be used to calculate a team's score for this round.  See Section D for Scoring.  Each team will be assigned the role of Petitioner or Respondent for this round as determined by a coin flip. 

Semi-Finals:

The Semi-Finals will reduce the field from FOUR (4) teams to TWO (2) final teams.  Only oral argument scores for this Semi-Final round will be used to calculate a team's score for this round.  See Section D for Scoring.  Each team will be assigned the role of Petitioner or Respondent for this round as determined by a coin flip. 

4. Final Round   ( Saturday, February 27, 2010)

The Final Round shall be conducted in the chambers of the North Carolina Supreme Court in Raleigh, North Carolina or in another location determined by the Craven Bench.  Only oral argument scores for this final round shall be used to determine the Champion of the Annual J. Braxton Craven Memorial Moot Court Competition.  See Section D for Scoring.

5. Participation

Three team members may compete in the overall competition but only two team members may participate in a single round of oral argument.  Two team members must argue in each round.  All team members that will participate in oral arguments are expected to participate in preparing the brief.  Teams may not have "Brief Specialists" who participate in preparing the brief but do not argue.  This rule is subject to the provisions of Rules A3 and B8.

6. Coaches

As specified in the Craven Rules, a "coach" is someone who is not writing or arguing a brief at the Craven Competition. A "team member" is someone who is writing and arguing a brief at the Craven Competition. Accordingly, no coaches can participate or register as team members, and no coaches are allowed to write the brief for team members. Furthermore, ALL coaches must be submitted with the team roster when the briefs are submitted. Coaches cannot be changed after the submission. This rule is subject to the provisions of Rule A3.

7. Duration

Oral arguments shall be limited to a total of thirty (30) minutes per team.  Judges may interrupt arguments to ask questions and may, within their discretion, allow additional time to any participant(s).  Petitioner, by advance arrangement with the judging panel and the student marshal, may reserve up to five (5) minutes of rebuttal time.  This rebuttal time will be deducted from the team's total thirty (30) minutes allotment, leaving it up to the competitors to decide from which teammate's argument those minutes will be deducted.  Only one team member arguing for Petitioner may argue during the rebuttal period.  In each round, every team will argue both issues in the problem.  The Petitioner will argue both issues, followed by the Respondent on both issues, followed by any rebuttal reserved by the Petitioner.

8. Spectators

During all opening rounds of oral argument only the two participating teams' members and two additional people (including any non-participating team member and any coach) may be present in the room without prior authorization from the Craven Bench.  This restriction is due to space limitations in certain rooms.  For the Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals, and Finals this rule does not apply.  Additionally, this rule does not apply to judges, marshals, or persons affiliated with the Craven Bench at any time during the competition.

9. Coin Flips

The sides of Petitioner and Respondent will be determined by a coin flip.  One team will have the option of calling the coin in the air.  The team that wins the coin flip will get to select which side, Petitioner or Respondent, it wishes to argue.  The team that loses the coin flip will argue the remaining side.  Coin flips will be conducted before the beginning of oral arguments from Rounds 3 through the Finals.

 

D.    SCORING

1.      In the Preliminary Rounds (Rounds 1 & 2), the score of each team for each round shall be computed by weighting the oral argument score seventy percent (70%) and the brief score thirty percent (30%).  The aggregate scores from Rounds 1 & 2 will be used to determine seedings for Rounds 3 & 4.

2.      In the Elimination Rounds (Rounds 3 & 4), the score of each team for each round shall be computed by weighting the oral argument score eighty percent (80%) and the brief score twenty percent (20%). 

3.      In the Quarter-Finals (Round 5), the score for each team shall be computed by weighting the oral argument score for Round 5 ninety percent (90%) and the brief score ten percent (10%).

4.      In the Semi-Finals and the Finals (Rounds 6 & 7), only the scores for oral arguments shall be used to compute a team's score.