“Skilled as Lawyers”: A Review of Legal Skill Development through Moot Court Competition

The successful integration of skill development intervention into the undergraduate Law curriculum is one of the main issues faced by legal educators today. Over the years, mooting has been incorporated into legal pedagogy to facilitate legal skill development and career readiness. The present study intends to broadly review and analyse the existing empirical evidence and discuss a policy framework for effective integration of moot courts into Legal education. This review employed doctrinal legal research methodology. A systematic literature search for scholarly work published between 1990-2025 was carried out in four main academic databases: HeinOnline, PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. Only 19 scholarly works were identified by the comprehensive literature search, and they were categorised into key skill domains: problem-solving, teamwork and collaboration, legal writing, advocacy and legal awareness, and other benefits. The review highlights the scarcity of existing research and emphasises the need for more action research to fully capture the applicability of mooting as a skill development intervention. However, despite these limitations, the present review informs an education policy by formally integrating mooting into undergraduate Legal Studies. It is proposed that mooting will be effective when formative assessment, which focuses on skill development, is incorporated. Moreover, institutions are required to provide the necessary physical and human resources for mooting, along with quality assurance mechanisms for its sustainability. The review encourages educators to comprehend the importance of developing an educational policy that integrates moot court into legal pedagogy.