Sunday Times 2
Themis 2025: Brush up your argument skills as the gavel comes down on Address to Jury contest
View(s):By Arrenga Nadaraja and Samadhee Wijesekera
The Horizon Campus at Knowledge City Malabe, will host Themis 2025 from August 22-24.
The first ever national inter-university Address to Jury (A2J) contest in Sri Lanka, it is organised by the Law Society of Horizon Campus, recognising the need to revitalise jural advocacy by training future legal professionals.
Tharindi
Themis is based on “a simulation of a jury trial where participants will present arguments not merely to win a case but to convince a jury of peers on legal, ethical, and moral grounds on why the requested relief should be granted,” says Chiranthi Senanayake, lecturer in law and advisor to the Law Society of Horizon Campus.
“The aim is to promote the skill of jural advocacy among law students where they are trained to submit their main arguments on the facts of the case before a simulated body of jurors tasked with determining the criminal or civil liability of the accused in a hypothetical case.”
She notes that jury trials and other peer-based forms of adjudication which were a key aspect of Sri Lanka’s pre-colonial legal system are now rare, mainly due to the time taken in trials by jury, possibility of inconsistent verdicts which counters the priority given to binding precedence, and the preference for specialist opinions by judges who are trained in the law.
“Jural advocacy taps into human consciousness and empathy; offering the accused a trial by peers and challenging advocates to factor in the emotional sensitivity of jurors. Strengthening trial by jury in Sri Lanka can be seen as a policy priority for the national legal system to respond to existing systemic shortcomings which lead to a denial of inclusive justice.”
“I view jury trials as an alternative but important form of advocacy, important form of justice hearing that we should be introducing to Sri Lanka.”
The name Themis is from the Greek Goddess who embodies justice, virtue and equity. The idea came from a Horizon student in 2022, during a brainstorming session over an inter-university moot competition.
Chirantha
Themis 2025 is open to undergraduate or postgraduate students at universities or higher education institutes. 14 teams from 10 institutions comprising nearly 80 undergraduate and postgraduate law students, will be taking part, Chiranthi says.
“Apart from the advocacy part, it is an opportunity to network with peers,” Tharindi Wijesinghe, President of the society, said, adding that this was an opportunity to gain exposure. They have been collaborating with the Law Students Association of Sri Lanka, adds Sakila Senarath Bandara, Vice President of the society.
The contest consists of 6 rounds and 3 knockout rounds. Students will be judged on criteria, ie, content and legal argumentation, persuasiveness, structure and clarity, creativity and originality, and time management.
In the preliminary round, 2 teams each consisting of 3 members (2 co-counsels and 1 researcher) as the prosecution/applicant and defendant/respondent parties will be pitted against each other as in a jury trial.
All the rounds will be based on a set A2J problem. A narrative will be released before the preliminary round with all the elements that you need to convince a judge, added Sakila. The team will build their submission and are allowed to research with the material given.
The most competent teams will advance to the qualifying rounds.
The cases they will be dealing with are “heinous criminal cases” and others involving murder, robbery etc that qualify for a jury in UK law.
The most important thing is the argument you present to convince a jury; for this to work, you need to use emotion, empathy and the facts of the case to depict what happened, the organisers reiterate.
Their hope is that the competition will shed light on the value of peer-based adjudication as a form of participatory justice and develop a generation of legal professionals with the capacity to advocate with empathy and sensitivity.