This course is designed to provide Queen¿s Law students with practical experience in written and oral advocacy at the level of an Appellate Court. Appeal litigation is fundamentally different, both procedurally and substantively than Trial litigation or basic Civil Litigation.
Students are given instruction and guidance in developing their own advocacy style. Generally speaking, you can¿t win a bad case with stellar advocacy skills. However, it is possible to jeopardize a good case with ineffective written and oral advocacy skills.
As the term progresses, the class is divided into two person teams and assigned the roles of either Appellants or Respondents. The class is then assigned a case that has recently been granted ¿Leave to Appeal¿ by the Supreme Court of Canada, but has not yet been heard by the SCC. By the end of the term the entire class will have served and filed their respective written Facta and presented oral argument in the case.
By design and with good timing, sometime later in the following Winter Term the Supreme Court of Canada will hear, adjudicate and release its own decision in that case.