Mooting and Advocacy Skills by David Pope and Dan Hill

 Mooting and Advocacy Skills by David Pope and Dan Hill is a legal skills textbook looking at what mooting is, how students should approach moots, research moot problems and present their cases as well as looking at how people can organise their own moots. It further looks at court etiquette and the layout of a court making this a perfect guide for those who have never been to a court before. The book also provides a number of unique sample moot problems which could either be used by mooters as practice or by the organisers for their competitions. The book also provides help on aspects which are particularly important for professional practice including how to write skeleton arguments and how to properly produce a court bundle.

I liked this book because Pope and Hill effectively teach and advise on every aspect of the booting process from first reading the problem, researching the problem and presenting one's case using an illustrative example to really ensure participants are aware of how to approach mooting and do their very best. This book also goes one step further by not only looking at the courts of England and Wales, but also including information about mooting in Scotland throughout this text. The appendices are also helpful for both participants and organisers to help assist with the kind of rules to expect or use and the assessment criteria for the judges to make use of.

The one downside to this book, as is the case for many textbooks of this nature, is that the textbook is not suited for everyone. Different people learn in different ways and this is particularly important for individuals who are neurodiverse who may find it more challenging to learn from a textbook or use the advice in this textbook the same way as neurotypicals. Furthermore, neurodivergent individuals may face additional challenges which they may not be able to approach in the same way as this textbook suggests or the same ways that neurotypicals may approach challenges. It is therefore important to remember that the advice in this textbook may not be very helpful for everyone, although the majority of this book certainly will be.

Altogether, I rate this book 3 stars because it is a good book which looks at every aspect of the booting process and what participants should be doing at each stage making this the perfect textbook for those participants who are completely new to mooting. This may in particular be law undergraduates where there is the further advantage that much of this book is written in plain English rather than a more difficult legal or academic language. I therefore highly recommend this textbook to anyone who is new to mooting and wants to give it a go.