National Moot Court Competition on Legal Ethics

National Moot Court Competition on Legal Ethics was held at New Vision University on November 16-18. Students from Free University of Tbilisi, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University, The University of Georgia and International Black Sea University took part in moot court competition. Organizing team gave one-day preparatory training for all participants on November 16th. Competition concept, competition rules and the basic principles of lawyers’ ethics were discussed during the training. Preliminary rounds of the competition were held on November 17th and all participating teams presented their positions on Ethics Commission Moot Hearing. Four teams which obtained higher scores on preliminary rounds succeeded to the Finals on November 18th. Participating teams were assessed by the invited expert-judges who have an outstanding competence and experience in legal ethics. To guarantee a fair and impartial assessment the names of the universities of the participating teams were unknown to the judges. Organizing team decided not to identify the winner and runner-up teams and all four finalists were granted with the Certificates of Achievement. The remaining teams were also granted with the Special Award Certificates for “Advancing the client’s interests in the best way”, “Responding to the counterarguments in the best way”, “Effective use of the practice of the Ethics’ Commission”. This attitude towards the Moot Competition rules is an innovation in Georgia and reflects the concept of the university which supports the popularization of the idea of participation in moot court competitions with educational purposes. The competition was held with the support of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) within the framework of East-West Management Institute’s (EWMI) project Promoting Rule of Law in Georgia (PROLoG).