KDU Law Society Members Pass On Their Keen Interest In Law During Mooting Workshop 2017

PETALING JAYA, 18 February 2017 – With aims of cultivating secondary school students’ interests in law studies, as well as enhancing their ability to understand how a criminal justice system works through a fun-based activity, the KDU Law Society together with their lecturer-advisors, recently organised the Mooting Workshop 2017 – a mock trial in a real-life courtroom setting!

The workshop was held at KDU Law School’s moot court, in KDU College, where 28 students from 9 high schools in Klang Valley turned up all prepared in a buzz of excitement. With props and costumes given, which included bib, wig, robes and wooden gavel, the students played designated roles such as judge, sheriff, court clerk, crown, defence, prosecutor, witnesses, and jury, carrying out two separate court trials in their respective teams - ‘Tarzan’ and ‘Superman’.

“I do think this experience has given me a lot of insights towards the law career in general. In fact, I’ve always wanted to see what these things were all about. I can’t object the fact that, by understanding the law, if anything had happened to me, I should know how to take action,” said Muhammad Danial Ariff Junaidy, a Form 5 student from SMK Seksyen 4 Kota Damansara, who played the role of Sheriff at the workshop.

“I have been dreaming of becoming a lawyer and that’s why I decided to participate in this workshop. I am glad that I could step into this moot court which mimics the actual ones. During the mock trial process, I gained a better understanding of how lawyers and judges play their roles,” Chong Wei Pang, a Form 5 student from SMK Bandar Utama Damansara 2 taking the role as a judge, expressed his mind.

With scripts provided by the organisers, each of the participants were encouraged to depict their roles fully, with their own additional skills and thoughts in mind. Their performance were observed and assessed throughout the mock trial process. As an eloquent speaker, Sasvadha Parathi, a Form 6 student from Kolej Tingkatan Enam Petaling Jaya, was given one of the best roles in the mock trial as first defence.

“I am interested in doing criminal law. Throughout this workshop process, I like and enjoyed the ‘cross-examination’ segment the most, as it gave me the opportunity to lessen the weight of unfavourable testimony. As such, this is a motivation for me to work harder,” enthused Sasvadha.

Amazed at how KDU law students had adequately answered questions raised by the participants during the Q&A session after the mooting process, Ms Evon Lim Ee Teng, Head of KDU Law School commented, “Based on past experiences and current exposures we have given to our students in KDU, we hope that they would have a bigger picture on how to carry out their own task, like thinking out of the box and answering unexpected questions, and they did it very well!”

“At KDU, we don’t exercise traditional education. Our programme stimulate students’ skills and the areas that they need to know. We are not only training law students to be theoretically smart but also hands-on. In fact, there are a lot of skills they picked up in the process of organising this workshop, be it public relations, communications, teamwork, goal management and so forth,” continued Lim.

According to Ms Meerah Deiwi A/P Raja Gopal, a senior lecturer at KDU Law School, in order to organise this event, members of KDU Law Society had made lots of preparation and arrangement. “I am satisfied as our students have played a big role in making this a successful event. As for the guest students, they have generally enjoyed the workshop and appreciated the fact that they were given opportunities to actually participate in a mock trial, instead of just sitting down and listening to someone talk about criminal law and civil trial.”  

This half-day event eventually ended with a simple prize giving ceremony, rewarding participants who were fully involved in their roles with a good command of language and tone of speaking.

To find out how you can hit the ground running with KDU, log on to www.kdu.edu.my or call 03-5565 0538 (KDU University College, Utropolis, Glenmarie) / 03-7953 6688 (KDU College, Damansara Jaya).