Harlan Fiske Stone Moot Court: Questions Presented

September 30, 2010

Questions Presented

The two issues that will be briefed and argued for the 2010-2011 Harlan Fiske Stone Moot Court are:

Whether the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments permit a state to sentence an individual who is innocent of the crime for which he or she was convicted to life without the possibility of parole.
Whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the imprisonment of a mentally retarded individual for life without the possibility of parole as punishment for the commission of a non-homicide crime.

About the Competition

The Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison Moot Court Program

About the Harlan Fiske Stone Moot Court Final Arguments

The Harlan Fiske Stone Moot Court final arguments, part of the Paul Weiss Moot Court Program, are the culmination of a three-round elimination competition in appellate advocacy.

This year, 56 students entered the competition. In the qualifying round, held during the fall semester, students briefed one of two issues on behalf of either the appellant or the United States, and presented their positions in oral arguments before panels composed of alumni practitioners and professors.

On the strength of their brief and oral argument scores, 20 competitors advanced to the spring semifinal rounds. There, they again briefed and argued a side of the same case. On April 7, the four students with the highest scores in the spring competition present their final arguments to our distinguished panel of judges, who will award the Lawrence S. Greenbaum Prize for the best oral presentation in the final round. Professor Philip Genty and Steven Zundell ’14, director of this year’s Harlan Fiske Stone competition will recognize the best final round brief.

This year marks the 89th anniversary of the Stone Moot Court, which was founded at Columbia Law School in 1925 by the Story Inn—a chapter of the legal fraternity Phi Delta Phi. The competition is named in honor of Harlan Fiske Stone (1872–1946), who was a member of the Story Inn while a student at the Law School.

Stone was named dean of Columbia Law School in 1910. He served in that capacity until 1924, when President Calvin Coolidge appointed him attorney general of the United States. He was named to the U.S. Supreme Court the following year and was elevated to chief justice in 1941.

This program is made possible by the generous support of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP.

Materials

September 30, 2010

Questions Presented