2014 STA.

MARIA PERSONS AND FAMILY RELATIONS MOOT

AUGUST 23, 2014
OFFICIAL RULE 1.0 Organization of the Competition
1.1.

MOTION
Let it be resolved that the age of consent for marriage be lowered to fourteen (14) years
old.

1.2.

PARTICIPANTS
All first year blocks will participate in the 2014 Sta. Maria Persons and Family Relations
Moot (hereinafter Persons Moot).

1.3.

ADMINISTRATION
The administration of the Persons Moot shall be conducted by 4C and 4D (hereinafter
Committee). The respective heads and members of the committees shall take charge of
their respective duties for the whole Persons Moot.

1.4.

TIMELINE
Date
August 7
August 14
August 23

1.5.

Activity
Briefing of the Participating Teams
Release of the Motion
Deadline for the Submission of Memorials
Exchange of Memorials from the Participating Teams
Oral Rounds

INTERPRETATION OF RULES
Any unresolved matter relating to the conduct of the Competition shall be decided by the
Committee.

OFFICIAL RULE 2.0 PARTICIPATION AND ELIGIBILITY

2.1.

TEAM COMPOSITION
The entire Block shall be responsible for researching and writing the Memorials. For the
Oral Rounds, each Team shall be composed of three (3) members two (2) oralists and
one (1) person for rebuttal/surrebuttal. The team members shall be selected by the class.

2.2.

ASSISTANCE TO TEAMS
All research, writing and editing must be solely the product of the Block. Each Block will
be assisted by two official student Coaches from the Committee. Official coaches will
advise the members on the following:
1

Discussion on the fundamentals of Persons and Family Relations Law;

General discussion of the issues;
Consultations regarding oral advocacy technique;
General commentary on argument organization and structure, the flow of
arguments, and format; and
Advice during Competition rounds as to pleading option or similar strategy.

Blocks are not precluded from precluded from enlisting other coaches aside from the
aforementioned two official coaches. But these unofficial coaches assistance shall be
limited to that of the five enumerated above. Any Block that receives inappropriate
outside assistance and coaching shall be disqualified from the Competition.
The official coaches are as follows.
1. Block A Carlo Sanchez and Bernard Tumaru
2. Block B Jech Tiu and Joyce Cruz
3. Block C Gaston Perez de Tagle and Nat Oducado
4. Block D CJ Narvasa and Glenne Abad
5. Block E Norby Geraldez and Trek Alojado
6. Block F Regie Arceo and Rae Espinosa
OFFICIAL RULE 3.0 THE PROBLEM
The Motion shall be released on August 7, 2014 at 9:00 P.M.
OFFICIAL RULE 4.0 MEMORIALS
4.1.

SUBMISSION OF MEMORIALS
Each Team participating in the Competition must prepare an Applicant and a Respondent
Memorial. The Team must submit eight (8) copies of each Memorial to the
Administrators on Thursday, August 14, from 12:00 NN to 1:00 PM at Bernas Center,
Ateneo Law School.
All copies submitted must be identical. Equipment failure or problems will not be
considered an excuse for improper formatting or late submission of Memorials. Once
submitted to the Committee, Memorials may no longer be altered.
Identical soft copies of all memorials, specifically one file for the applicant and one file
for the respondent of each team, must also be submitted to personsmoot2014@gmail.com
with the following file name: [A for applicant/R for respondent][Team number].doc. All
soft copies must be in Microsoft Word Format .doc with no passwords, unless such
passwords will be included in the email sent, e.g. A001.doc (applicant memorial of team
001). The deadline for soft copies shall be the same as that for the hard copies.
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Failure to submit the soft copies in the proper form and the designated time will merit
deductions that are equivalent to the corresponding deductions pertaining to hard copies.
4.2.

FORMAT OF MEMORIALS
Memorials shall be printed on a short bond paper (8.5 x 11 in).
The font and size of the text must be in either Times New Roman 12-point or Courier 10point, or larger. This applies to all parts of the memorial. The text of all parts of each
Memorial must be double-spaced, except that the text of footnotes and headings may be
single-spaced, provided that there be double-spacing between separate footnotes, and
between each heading and the body-text.
The font-size and double-spacing provisions of this Rule do not apply to the cover page
of the Memorial. The double-spacing provisions of this Rule do not apply to the Index of
Authorities or the Table of Contents.

4.3.

DESCRIPTION OF THE MEMORIAL

4.3.1.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

PARTS OF THE MEMORIAL

Cover Page;
Table of Contents;
Index of Authorities;
Summary of Pleadings;
Pleadings; and
Conclusion and/or Prayer for Relief.

4.3.2.
LEGAL ARGUMENT LIMITED TO PLEADINGS SECTION
Substantive, affirmative legal argument or legal interpretation of the facts of the
Competition motion may only be presented in the Pleadings section of the Memorial,
including the Conclusion and/or Prayer for Relief (except insofar as such argument may
be summarized in the Summary of Pleadings).
4.3.3.
INDEX OF AUTHORITIES
Each Memorial must include an Index of Authorities. The Index must contain a list of
all legal authorities cited in any section of the Memorial. The Index must include a
description of each authority adequate to allow a reasonable reader to identify and locate
the authority in a publication of general circulation, and must include the page number(s)
of the Memorial on which each authority is cited.
4.3.4.
SUMMARY OF PLEADINGS
A well-formed Summary of the Pleadings should consist of a substantive summary of the
Pleadings section of the Memorial, rather than a simple reproduction of the headings
contained in the Pleadings section.
4.4.

LENGTH

The Summary of Pleadings, including section headings, and any associated footnotes
must be no longer than 700 words.

The total length of Pleadings, including the section headings, conclusion, prayer for
relief, and any associated footnotes, must be no longer than 3,250 words1

Limitation on the Use of Footnotes/Endnotes

Either footnotes or endnotes may be used. However, footnotes or endnotes are to be used
only to identify the source of a statement made in the body of the Memorial and to
provide the reader with a citation to a generally-available reference for that source.
Neither footnotes nor endnotes may include substantive pleadings, examples, or any text
other than the actual cite. Footnotes and endnotes are included in the word count.
Gross and repeated failure to include adequate information in footnotes is a discretionary
Penalty, subject to a Penalty of up to five (5) points.
Illustrative example of an acceptable footnote: Certain Norwegian Loans (Fr. v. Nor.),
1957 I.C.J. 9, 23-24 (July 6) [hereinafter Norwegian Loans].
Illustrative example of a footnote in violation of the Official Rules: Certain Norwegian
Loans (Fr. v. Nor.), 1957 I.C.J. 9, 23-24 (July 6) [hereinafter Norwegian Loans] (holding
that Frances reservation in its declaration denying the Court jurisdiction over issues
essentially within the national jurisdiction as understood by France could be utilized
reciprocally by Norway).

4.5.

COVERS
4.6.1.

INFORMATION CONTAINED IN MEMORIAL COVER

Each Memorial should bear on its cover the following, and only the following: (a) the
Block team number; (b) the year of the competition; (c) the name of the case; and (d) the
title of the document (i.e., "Memorial for Respondent" or "Memorial for Applicant").
4.6.2.

COLOR OF MEMORIAL COVER

The cover of the memorial for the applicant shall be yellow, while that for the respondent
shall be red. The color appearing on the front outermost page of the memorial shall be
considered the memorials color.
4.6.

MANNER OF BINDING
Memorials shall have to be wire bound.

1
Microsoft Word (MW) will be used to determine the word count. Anything MW considers to be a word
will be counted as such.