Court, Moot Court, Mock Court and Mock Trial

Court is a body in the Government to which the public administration of justice is delegated. It is a place where cases are heard and justice is judicially administered. In other words, Courts are empowered to hear and determine issues between parties.

In this regard, we can say that, Court is an organised body with defined powers, meeting at certain times, and places, for the hearing and decision of causes and other matters brought before it, and aided in this, its proper business, by its proper offices.

Three essential components, which constitute a court, are;

1. Actor: the plaintiff who makes the complaint about an injury caused to him
2. Reus:the defendant who was called upon to make satisfaction for it
3. Judex: the judicial power to examine the truth of the fact

Moot is a mock judicial proceeding set up to examine a hypothetical case as an academic exercise. It is a subject to debate, dispute, or uncertainty. By virtue of Merriam Webster, online dictionary moot is a deliberative assembly primarily for the administration of justice; especially: one held by the freemen of an Anglo-Saxon community.

According to Oxford Dictionaries (Online Edition), moot means a mock judicial proceeding set up to examine a hypothetical case as an academic exercise: the object of a moot is to provide practice in developing an argument.

Moot Court is a mock court at which law students argue imaginary cases for practice. It is an artificial court generally set up in the law schools and law colleges for law students. Moot Courts are generally used as a form of clinical legal education OR clinical legal training for law students. However, there are various societies and cells, which do conduct moot courts as a competition event.

The term mock means imaginary or not real. Mock Courts are imaginary courts, which functions similar to that of an ordinary court for providing training to law students. At the same time, a Mock Trial is an act or imitation trial. It is similar to a moot court, but mock trials mimic lower-court trials, while moot court mimics appellate court hearings.