What does it look like to study law beyond the classroom? Last term, Rehoboth’s Year 11 and 12 Politics and Law students stepped into the historic Supreme Court of Western Australia, putting their knowledge to the test in the Law Society of WA’s Mock Trial Competition.
‘Politics and Law’ at Rehoboth rests on a fairly simple idea: that working out how our society governs itself, and how it goes about justice, is part of learning to live faithfully as citizens. Our Year 11 and 12 students spend the year on questions about power, accountability and the rule of law. Last term a group of them took that out of the classroom and into an actual courtroom.
Two combined Year 11 and 12 teams represented the College in the Law Society of WA’s Mock Trial Competition, which has been running since 1987 and is the oldest school’s competition of its kind in the state. Trials are held in the 1903 Supreme Court building in Stirling Gardens, in front of practicing judges and lawyers. Students take the roles of barristers, solicitors, witnesses and court staff, and argue fictitious civil and criminal cases under simplified rules of evidence. They are marked on advocacy and on how well they understand the law they are arguing.
We went through three rounds between March and June, against Santa Maria College, John Forrest Senior High School and St Mary’s, and won our final round. Along the way the students had to get their heads around the differences between civil and criminal trials and had some good arguments about the strengths and weaknesses of our adversarial system.
The result was not really the point. What stood out was the hours of preparation, the work that went into building a strategy, and the way the students backed each other up under pressure in a real court. Knowing the law is one thing. Thinking on your feet and speaking clearly while a judge interrupts you is another.
Well done to everyone involved.