National High School Mooting Competition

Embrace challenge now

The Bond University Faculty of Law conducts one of Australia’s oldest high school mooting competitions. The national competition brings together schools from every state and territory who battle it out in front of real judges, barristers and members of the legal profession and academe.

Registrations for the 2020 event will open later this year.

If you have any questions about the National High School Mooting Competition, please email [email protected].

What is the National High School Mooting competition?

Bond University’s Faculty of Law conducts an annual mooting competition involving student representatives from secondary schools around Australia. The National High School Mooting Competition is an event for Year 11 and 12 students to develop their advocacy skills in a competitive environment. Up to 100 of Australia’s most prominent schools participate in an intense competition held over a fortnight.

The competition is by invitation only. The preliminary rounds for the 2020 event will be held from Tuesday, 5 May to Friday, 15 May on the Bond University campus on the Gold Coast. The National Grand Finals will also be held on campus on Saturday, 30 May.

Congratulations to Brisbane's Citipointe Christian College in defeating Haileybury from Melbourne in the 2019 National Grand Final. This was a very close moot to judge and both teams were exceptional in their arguments. View the full media release.

Registration of interest for the 2020 competition will open later this year. In the meantime, if you have any questions please email [email protected].

Mooting is the oral presentation of a legal issue or problem against an opposing counsel and before a judge. It is perhaps the closest experience that a student can have to appearing in court. The contest is decided by assessing the advocacy skills of the participants, rather than on the merits of the case.

Bond University is honoured to be able to offer the Judge John Newton Mooting Scholarships each year. Three scholarships of 50% tuition fee waiver are available to students who have competed previously in the National High School Mooting Competition and who wish to study law at Bond. Read more

Bond University has committed significant financial and learning support to schools and teachers/coaches to make the National High School Mooting Competition a learning experience without parallel. Learn more about the financial and learning support Bond provides to participating schools. Read more

Registrations will open by September this year. In the meantime, if you have any questions please contact us at [email protected]

Mooting Toolkit

The Mooting Toolkit is a resource centre which includes a series of videos to help moot teams prepare throughout the High School Mooting Competition. Bond Law students and academics have created the Toolkit to give you a look into the world of mooting.

What is mooting?
Mooting tips by Bond Law students.

Student mooting experience
Tips from Bond Law students on the mooting experience.

The word “moot” can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon era of British history when a “moot” was the meeting of prominent figures and nobles from the local society to discuss matters of regional importance.

Previous winners

The Bond University National High School Mooting Competition was established in 1989 and has grown rapidly, with approximately 80 high schools from across Australia participating in the annual event.