National NALSA Moot Court

Hawaii Law School Release on NNALSA Moot Court

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

MORE THAN 100 LAW STUDENTS TO COMPETE IN HAWAIʻI

HONOLULU, HAWAIʻI: Law students representing 28 law schools will argue for and against native political recognition, as well as a native government’s right to determine its membership, when they compete in the 20th annual National Native American Law Students Association’s moot court competition. The upcoming competition, hosted at the William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, will take place on February 24-25, 2012. A symposium on the issues highlighted in the problem will take place the day after the competition on Sunday, February 26, 2012.

UH Law Associate Professor and Director of Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law, Melody K. MacKenzie authored the competition problem. Three outside reviewers also reviewed the problem to ensure its fairness and accuracy. Designed to simulate the practice of law, the annual event requires competing law students in 2-person teams to conduct research and write legal briefs, without assistance from professors or others, and argue against other student teams at the competition.

Participating law schools include Arizona State University, Columbia, Cornell, UCLA, the University of Michigan, and the University of Washington, and 22 others.

Competition organizers are hoping to recruit more attorneys to serve as competition judges over the two-day event.

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs is a lead sponsor of the event.

Hawai`i’s only law school last hosted this competition in 2000 shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court decided Rice v. Cayetano. That case resolved whether non-Hawaiians may vote in elections for trustees of the office of Hawaiian Affairs.

Derek Kauanoe, an event organizer noted, “we’re very excited to host the 20th annual event and to have so many competitors. It’s an opportunity to focus on some of the issues important to the Native Hawaiian community and to educate law students and attorneys across the U.S. about those matters.”

More information is available on the competition web page at http://www2.hawaii.edu/~nalsa/mootcourt.html

National NALSA Moot Court Brief Judges Needed

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From Shawn Watts:

Aloha!

Now that the holidays are coming to close, we are reaching out in hopes that you are willing to score briefs for the NNALSA Moot Court Competition.
We hope to get about 60 volunteers to score briefs, but we are far short as of now. If we do get 60, that will mean each judge will have three or fewer briefs to score. We have changed the moot court rules so that briefs will be submitted electronically. That means it will be easier to get the briefs to you and for you to get them back to us.
Signing up to score briefs is easier than ever thanks to this website that Hawaii has set up to streamline the process:
So, if you are willing to score briefs, sign up at the site above. Or, if you have questions about the process, please contact the competition organizer Maria Carmichael at maria.ann.carmichael@gmail.com, Derek Kauanoe at derek.kauanoe@gmail.com, or the competition administrator, National NALSA vice president, James Simermeyer at simermja@law.unm.edu.
The competition is just around the corner and we need your help to make the experience a rewarding one for the competitors!

National NALSA Moot Court Call for Judges!!!! [UPDATED]

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Volunteer to judge the Competition! Sign up here!

The National NALSA Moot Court Competition is an annual event held by the Native American Law Students Association. On February 25 & 26, 2011, the Competition will be held at Columbia Law School. Teams from law schools across the country will head to New York City to compete against each other. The Competition also provides an opportunity for law students interested in Federal Indian and Tribal law to meet each other and practitioners, and to enjoy New York City.

The Competition begins with the release of the Problem, written each year by a leading scholar in Federal Indian and Tribal Law, in the fall. Team registrations were due Dec. 6, with the late registration deadline Dec. 18. Based off of the Problem, teams of two write an appellate-level brief on behalf of one of the parties in the suit. The Briefs are due in mid-January. At Competition, teams compete against each other in oral argument rounds, arguing for both parties over several rounds. Awards are given out for Best Briefs, Best Oral Advocates, and Best Advocates. For more information, please see the Moot Court Rules.

For more information about Columbia Law School’s NALSA Chapter, please visit our website. For information about how Columbia runs their Moot Court program, please read this pdf.

National NALSA Moot Court Problem ONLINE Now

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the Columbia NALSA moot court page.

And the direct link to the problem.

NNALSA Moot Court Competition Results Press Release

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Schlender, Jr. wanted this up as soon as possible. 🙂

NNALSA Moot Court 2010

The text:

Wisconsin wins the 18th Annual NNALSA Moot Court Competition

In a riveting performance Dan Lewerenz and William Dalsen of the University of Wisconsin Law School won the 2010 NNALSA Moot Court Competition held in Vermilion, South Dakota, February 19-20, 2010. The University of South Dakota hosted this most impressive event.

Advancing to the final round were Lewerenz and Dalsen of Wisconsin Law against Robert Thompson and Alison Grigonis of the University of California Los Angeles School of Law.

The judges for the Championship round was composed of South Dakota Attorney General Marty J. Jackley, Hon. Robert A. Miller of the South Dakota Supreme Court (Chief Justice, retired), Hon. Jeffrey L. Viken and Hon. Karen E. Schreier (Chief Judge) of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota, and Hon. Roger L. Wollman of the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Continue reading →

Press Release on National NALSA Moot Court Competition

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

NATIONAL NATIVE AMERICAN LAW STUDENTS ASSOCIATION
MOOT COURT COMPETITION
and
NALSA INDIAN LAW/SOUTH DAKOTA LAW REVIEW SYMPOSIUM
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH DAKOTA SCHOOL OF LAW

Vermillion, South Dakota
February 18-20, 2010
Sponsorship Opportunity

On February 18-20, the University of South Dakota School of Law will host the nation’s pre-eminent Indian Law event. It will include the National Native American Law Students Association (NALSA) Moot Court Competition, the foremost annual Indian law academic competition. The competition will be conducted in conjunction with a scholarly symposium co-sponsored by the South Dakota Law Review and the USD NALSA chapter and with the biennial Dillon Lecture on Indian law. The symposium represents the first time the annual Law Review Symposium has been combined with the NALSA Indian Law Symposium. The latter has been held biennially for more than two decades, making it the longest-running Indian law symposium in the nation. The Dillon Lecture is one of the Law School’s three major scholarly lectures; it is held biennially in conjunction with the Indian Law Symposium and features a major national speaker on Indian law.

Student teams from across the country will compete in the National NALSA Moot Court Competition. Teams from 55 schools have already registered, including teams from the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, University of California-Berkeley, University of Colorado, Columbia University, Gonzaga University, University of Hawaii, University of Iowa, Kansas University, Lewis & Clark University, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, University of Minnesota, University of New Mexico, University of North Dakota, University of Oklahoma, Stanford University, University of Tulsa, UCLA, University of Wisconsin, and William Mitchell College of Law. Many schools are sending multiple teams; for example, Columbia has registered six teams. The current registration represents a 25% increase over the number of teams that participated in last year’s competition in Boulder, Colorado.

The appellate problem for the competition has been drafted by USD Professor Frank Pommersheim, an internationally recognized Indian law expert who sits on several tribal supreme courts. It will involve issues of free exercise of religion in Indian Country. Judges for the Moot Court Competition will include members of the tribal, federal, and state judiciary and lawyers with expertise in Indian law.

The Dillon Lecture will be presented by Professor Matthew Fletcher (Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians), Director of the Indigenous Law & Policy Center of the Michigan State University College of Law. Professor Fletcher is a co-author of the leading national casebook on federal Indian law and a judge and consultant to tribal supreme courts. Continue reading →