Surana and Surana Moots
The Surana and Surana Moots project was initiated by the founder of Surana and Surana International Attorneys, P.S.Surana. One day in the late 1980s, Honb'le Justice Krishna Iyer during his stay with the Surana family, spoke at length about the need to nurture young advocates with good advocacy skills. He was also concerned about the fact that bright young law graduates were joining the corporate sector, thereby depriving the Bar of a steady flow of good talent. This prompted Mr. Surana to plan a well structured & transparent moot court competition platform for law students to develop skills in oral and written advocacy as well as legal research. The cases prepared for the competitions are based on either emerging or unsettled areas of law. This requires participants to come up with innovative arguments which in turn helps develop new jurisprudence. Members of the higher & lower judiciary have participated in these moots and have greatly appreciated the efforts of Surana & Surana in developing legal skills among generations of budding lawyers. There were several exciting moots coming in the year 2018. The details of some of these have been released on moot.in which is the official website for Surana & Surana Moots. Established in 2002. with the aim of training the participants in application of laws to challenges posed by the rapid technological advancements, this moot focuses on the developments in Public and Private International Law and has ingredients of international trade and operations of multi national corporations. Themes covered till date include Information Technology, Biotechnology, Intellectual Property, Space laws, Aviation, Nuclear proliferation, Communication, Cyber Crime and Broadcasting. Participants gain considerable expertise in the respective domains on which the issues are framed. Established in 2002, to provide Indian law students an opportunity to develop expertise in the area of corporate laws like Companies Act, Taxation (domestic and international), Contracts, Foreign Exchange and Investments, Securities Regulations and Corporate Governance. The highlight of the competition is that it is also open to students of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and Institute of Company secretaries of India (ICSI). This moot was conceived with the purpose of creating awareness on the Constitutional Law in a systematic and scientific manner. Participation provides exposure to constitutional law practice & facilitates the evolution of constitutional law through comparative study and analysis of existing laws and consequential emergence of new laws in the world. This moot was started in 2016-17 in association with KLE Law College, Bangalore. Established in 2005, This competition was conceived as one of its kind, with the aim of promoting skills of trial advocacy. In its 10th successful year (2014), this national moot is by far the most appreciated moot for its innovation and structure. Popular demand led to the creation of three more editions of this unique moot [India North, India South, India North East & India West (from 2014–15) rounds.] This was the first moot ever to be held in the North Eastern region of India in 2012. This is a moot where the students of the host institution actively participate as witnesses for the oral rounds. The India regional rounds of this most prestigious International Law Moot, Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition has been Co-sponsored, Co-hosted and administered by Surana & Surana since the 1990s in partnership with various prestigious law schools across India. This moot covers the entire gamut of Public International Law that includes the latest developments worldwide. Judges from the higher judiciary, legal experts, and professors of International law, practising advocates who had earlier participated/won Jessup competition are invited to judge the competition. The top two teams from each of the regional rounds represent India in the International Rounds at Washington. In the event of a single national round, one team for every ten teams registered will be selected to represent India, with a cap of 4 teams at maximum. National Law School of India University, Bangalore has won the International rounds in 2005 and in 2013. The India regional rounds of this most prestigious international environmental law moot by Stetson University College of Law has been Co-sponsored, Co-hosted & administered by Surana & Surana in partnership with leading Indian law schools since the late 1990s. NLU Jodhpur won the competition for the first time in the year 2013. Gujarat National Law University, a team composed of Shikhar Maniar, Manya Oberoi and Sujoy Sur, won the competition in 2017. Conceived to create awareness on the rights of ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities and to facilitate the evolution of minority rights through the jurisprudential analysis of the existing law and consequential emergence of new law. This moot was organised from 2005-06 to 2010-11 in association with Maharashtra Cosmopolitan Educational Society, Pune and AKK New Law Academy, Pune. This moot's theme offers the opportunity for comparative study of the Constitutions and Laws of different countries in the area of minority rights thereby giving participants insights into international jurisprudence on minority rights. This moot was conceived with the purpose of creating awareness on the Law of Torts in a systematic and scientific manner. Participation provides exposure to tort law practice & facilitates the evolution of tort law through comparative study and analysis of existing laws and consequential emergence of new laws in the world. This moot was organized in 2012-13 in association with Maharashtra Cosmopolitan Educational Society, Pune and AKK New Law Academy, Pune. In light of the then proposed National Company Law Tribunal (finally set up under the 2013 Companies Act) this moot was initiated in partnership with the Institute of Company Secretaries of India to provide students of the Company Secretary course in nuances of Indian legal system and to hone their advocacy skills. It aimed to provide a real-life experience cum training in doing cutting-edge research, presenting ground breaking arguments (oral and written) and contributing to the development of corporate law jurisprudence. The moot helped achieve the above objectives with about 100 teams participating in the 5 years of its tenure between 2005-06 to 2010-11. In association with School Of Law, Raffles University, Neemrana in 2018.
Types of competition
Since the mid-1990s every year the law firm Surana and Surana International Attorneys have hosted, administered & sponsored over a hundred moot court competitions (the count is till 2013 and continuing) in partnership with India's leading law schools. This project is one of the largest of its kind in the world by any law firm. Probably this is what it means to be called as the "Pioneers of moot court competitions in India".