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.

In 2022, the competition is back after a two-year hiatus and will be hosted virtually. The National High School Mooting Competition will be held from Monday, 16 May to Friday, 20 May 2022. The Grand Final will be held on campus on Saturday, 4 June 2022.

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 have participated in this intense competition in the past. The competition is by invitation only.

In 2019 Brisbane's Citipointe Christian College defeated Haileybury from Melbourne in the National Grand Final. This was a very close moot to judge and both teams were exceptional in their arguments. View the full media release. We look forward to many more high standard moots!

Announcement - National High School Mooting Competition in 2022

Thank you to all schools and students who have participated in the National High School Mooting Competition over the past few years. The Faculty of Law is extremely proud of this initiative as we have provided high school students across the country with a valuable and formative learning experience.

The National High School Mooting Competition in 2022 will be hosted online, on a video-conferencing platform. The National Grand Final will be on campus. Learning to advocate over a virtual platform is key - currently courts and tribunals sit virtually, a trend that is like to continue. We thank you for your understanding.

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. This will again be the case in 2022. Learn more about the financial and learning support Bond provides to participating schools. Read more

Registrations will open by October 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.