Fife pupil to fly the flag at mock court trial event

COMPETITION: Kirkcaldy student will represent UK in international event in the Hague

A team of Scottish school pupils will fly the flag for the UK for the first time in an international mock trial event in The Netherlands later this month.

Kirkcaldy High School will be among the schools represented in the International Moot Court competition at The Hague on January 21 after pupils excelled in the Scottish national Seniors competition run by the School Mock Court Case Project.

Competitions in Scotland are organised by the School Mock Court Case Project and supported by the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service which provides venues for trials to take place and help with staging competitions.

More than 80 schools from around Scotland registered for the project this year and since the scheme began it has benefited 10,000 pupils.

Alongside Kirkcaldy High, pupils from Falkirk High School, Dunbar Grammar, Whitburn Academy, George Watson’s College, Edinburgh, Taylor High School, Motherwell, and Ross High School, Tranent, are also involved.

Gerald Murphy, founder and chairman of the board of trustees of the School Mock Court Case Project, wished all those taking part well and commended pupils on their efforts to date.

“We are proud to be invited to such a prestigious event and to be the only team in the UK invited, ever,” he added.

Students participating in the seniors project applied on an individual basis to take part in the international contest and 10 youngsters were invited to an assessment day on November 19 where they met tutors.

They were assessed and asked to give a presentation at the Court of Session.

Seven pupils were then selected to compete and assigned to either the prosecution or the defence team.

They will go to The Hague next week to battle it out with 14 teams from around the world for the international title.

Other teams taking part are from Buenos Aires, Argentina; Sofia, Bulgaria; Munich, Germany; Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; The Hague, Netherlands; Gdynia, Poland; Campulung Muscel, Romania; Moscow and St Petersburg, Russia; New York City, USA; Caracas, Venezuela; Pretoria, South Africa and Baku, Azerbaijan.

The Scottish team attended the Court of Session in Edinburgh yesterday to prepare for the forthcoming competition with a moot court between the defence and prosecutions teams themselves, with further practice pencilled in for the weekend.

Real sheriffs will preside over the trial runs, and students will also get feedback from a member of the Faculty of Advocates.

Kirkcaldy High School pupil Osama Aslam at the Mock Trial in the Court of Session, Edinburgh. Picture: Deadline News.