Research On The Moot Court Teaching Method

The education of law science is a unique subject education aimed at the development of law science and the purpose of the cultivation of legal professionals, with a character of prominent operability and practicality. It is both a formative and professional education. The education of law science has to be in accordance with the general principles of education and teaching in personnel training, as well as meeting the challenge of cultivation of inter-disciplinary professionals by legal profession. However, the current education of law science values only the lecturing of theoretical knowledge while ignoring the formation of practical capability in the personnel cultivation. Teaching method is mainly based on lectures. This single character makes students'learning passive and is difficult to realize the initiate construct of knowledge. The aim of cultivating inter-disciplinary professionals is hardly achieved under this situation. Moot court teaching method, as a teaching activity stressing the training and cultivation of practical capability, has achieved remarkable teaching effects in the teaching process in other countries, known as the cultivation of batches of legal professionals whom the society needs. In the teaching process, moot court teaching method, which is a typical combination of teaching and learning, is not only an effective session for students conducting the practical learning, but also an important teaching activity for teachers carrying out practical teaching. Thereby, the recommendation and popularization of moot court teaching method in the education of law science in the higher education institutes of China is an inevitable choice. Although some success has been achieved, moot court teaching method has problems, such as dated teaching equipment, narrow source of cases, low quality, irregularity of tutor's capability, disproportionality between teachers and students, strong sense of performance, limited class hours, no guarantee for times of simulations, and so on so forth. It has become more and more serious to us that how to solve the above-mentioned problems and make a better use of the superiority of moot court teaching method in the education of law science.The first part of the paper is the outline of theory of moot court teaching method, which elaborates the theoretical foundation and values of moot court teaching method in the aspects of conception, character, theoretical basis and teaching idea of moot court teaching method. Specifically, in the theoretical basis section, the author analyses and presents the views of practice, knowledge and teaching from the dimensions of ontology, epistemology and axiology. In the teaching values section, researches are conducted from the practical and theoretical values. In the teaching idea section, explorations are carried out from views to knowledge, study, students and teachers. The second part points out where the values of moot court teaching method exists through the analysis and comparisons between moot court teaching method and case teaching method, discussion teaching method and clinical teaching method. The third part introduces the teaching process of moot court teaching method. The authors summaries the process of moot court teaching method, preparation (interest arousing) - hint (case perceiving)-association (case comprehension and analysis) - application (trial simulation) - summary (assessment), based on the phase division by Herhart's classic five formal steps and the combination of the character of moot court teaching method itself. The fourth part analyses the problems which should be noted in the application of moot court teaching method. Firstly it points out the specific application in all subjects of law science of moot court teaching method, that is choosing appropriate case based on the character and nature of different subjects and purpose of moot court teaching method. Then it makes a description of four common evaluation criteria of moot court teaching method, namely whether te preparation is adequate, whether the organization is well-organized, whether the procedural is legitimate, and whether the skill is appropriate. The teaching effect of moot court teaching method is achieved better through the assessment and summary of moot court teaching method. The last part offers some suggestions and tactics to the properuse and development of practical teaching in order to pursuit the best teaching effects from multiple angles.