A book on mooting co-written by University of Queensland law lecturer Anthony Cassimatis has received an Australian Award for Excellence in Educational Publishing sponsored by The Australian.
The book, The Mooting Manual, along with a book on legal drafting, forms part of the Butterworths' legal skills series.
The series was judged the best tertiary series by education academics, consultants and a representative of The Australian at the APA Australian Book Fair in Melbourne last month.
Panel convenor Mike Horsley said the criteria for the Awards were innovation and flair, quality of subject matter content, representation of the discipline, special features and characteristics, clarity of writing, pedagogical implications and special features and characteristics.
Mr Cassimatis, who joined the University in 1993, wrote the opening chapters which concentrate on the history of mooting and research preparation for students.
Co-author was Terry Gygar, a former Queensland MLA and now adviser to the opposition leader in New South Wales.
Mr Cassimatis said the book concentrated on practical examples of moots.
"We thought it would be good to include practical examples along with guidance in both doing and running moots," he said.
"Moots are simulated court hearings and there are lots of different ways they can be held.
The simplest is appellate mooting, where you have a case which has already been heard in a court and you argue an appeal from that decision.
"It is very good in terms of research and oral advocacy skills."
Mr Cassimatis has also coordinated the University's team in the Law Council's Family Law Moot.
Interested in international law, Mr Cassimatis is coach for the University's international law Jessup Moot Competition team which recently started competing on a regular basis.
"Over the years we have put in some excellent teams but we have been unable to field a team every year. A team would go in one year and then no one would compete again for years and we would lose all that knowledge and experience," he said.
"We entered a team in last year which did well and this year's team has built on that performance. Hopefully we will do even better next year. We are aiming at the finals in Washington."
Mr Cassimatis said the best advice for would-be mooters was to start mooting.
"And while the book also has a lot of other advice, the best preparation is actually doing it.
The advice will speed up the process but advice is no use without practice," he said.
For information contact Mr Cassimatis (telephone 3365 2446).
