Carrigan Cup Academic Credit Policy
The Carrigan Cup is the University of North Dakota School of Law’s intramural trial competition. The Carrigan Cup is held near the end of the spring semester. It is open to any interested 2L or 3L who has successfully completed Evidence; there are no other prerequisites. The faculty supervisor will offer a truncated lesson on trial procedure open to any interested team; attendance at this lesson is not mandatory.
Participants must register in teams of two; every effort will be made by the faculty supervisor to partner students who are otherwise unable to register as a team. Participation involves preparing a fictional casefile for trial over the course of four to six weeks. Each competitor must conduct one direct examination, one cross-examination, and either an opening statement or closing argument during each trial. Teams are responsible for researching, raising, and arguing all evidentiary issues at trial.
Each team will compete in a minimum of two preliminary rounds of trial, presenting the case for the prosecution/plaintiff as well as the defense at least once before potential elimination. At the end of each round, competitors are critiqued by at least three members of the bench or bar concerning their trial strategies and skills. Additionally, competitors receive copies of the written critique of each of the three judges. At the conclusion of the preliminary rounds, those students with the most successful records will move on to playoff rounds, the number of which will vary from year to year based on the number of competitors.
The course will be graded on a Pass/Fail basis. The faculty supervisor of the Carrigan Cup may award the grade of Pass, entitling qualifying students to one academic credit, to any student who competes in every round to which his or her team advances demonstrating a minimum level of competence and preparation.
Adopted by Faculty Committee, April 27, 2007
Effective August 22, 2007
