CLEA fosters and promotes high standards of legal education in the Commonwealth. Founded in 1971, it is Commonwealth-wide’ body with regional Chapters in South Asia, Southern Africa, West Africa, the Caribbean and the U.K. Membership is open to individuals, schools of law and other institutions concerned with legal education and research. The Association’s Programme of Action is based on the need to make legal education socially relevant and professionally useful, particularly through the development of law curricula and teaching methodology; for law schools to prepare themselves for the demands of the profession in the context of the information revolution and other global challenges; and to support continuing legal education and distance learning programmes.
The Commonwealth Moot is an initiative of the Commonwealth Legal Education Association (CLEA) and the Commonwealth Lawyers Association (CLA).The Commonwealth Moot has generally been held concurrently with the Commonwealth Law Conference (CLC). In 2001 however, it was held separately from CLC since the CLC itself was postponed because of issues in Zimbabwe. Instead, the CLEA held its own conference in Colombo, Sri Lanka, along with the Commonwealth Moot.
It has been the tradition that, wherever the competition is held, the local Law Society plays a major role in organising the venues, the judges, and the accommodation for the visiting teams so that the entire competition runs smoothly. A significant feature of the Commonwealth Moot has been the willingness of members of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association and associated organisations, who attend the Commonwealth Law Conference, to readily forego their valuable time to judge the moots of the competition. This willingness shown by the senior members of the Commonwealth Bar and the Judiciary sets the Commonwealth Moot apart from other moots. There are very few international mooting competitions in which the bench judging the finals, more often than not, consists of Chief Justices from countries, provinces and states across the Commonwealth.
The teams that represent the regions are nominated by the CLEA representatives who base their nominations on the results of the following continental, regional or national moot competitions involving Commonwealth countries in their regions :-
Australia and New Zealand - the highest placed teams from each country in the Australian Law Students’ Association Moot
South Pacific- the highest placed team from either University of PNG or University of the South Pacific in the Pan-Pacific Moot
West Africa, Southern Africa and East Africa - the highest placed Commonwealth member country team from each of these regions as decided by the All Africa Human Rights Moot Court Competition
Canada - the winner of the Gale Cup Moot
United Kingdom the winner of the English Speaking Union’s National Mooting Competition.
The Caribbean – a composite team from the representative law schools
South Asia (India) – the winners of the national competition conducted by the CLEA Indian Chapter
South Asia (Pakistan, Sri Lanka Bangladesh - the winners of the regional competition conducted by the Regional Chapter
South East Asia - (Malaysia and Singapore). A team nominated by the regional representative.
Presently the teams compete for the shield, formerly known as the ‘Turnbull Shield’, and now generally referred to as the ‘Commonwealth Shield’.
The winning nations and years as listed on the shield are:
1983 (in Hong Kong) - Australia
1986 (in Jamaica) - United Kingdom
1990 (in New Zealand) - United Kingdom
1993 (in Cyprus) - Canada
1996 (in Canada) - Australia
1999 (in Malaysia) - South Africa
2001 (in Sri Lanka) - United Kingdom
2003 (in Australia) - United Kingdom
2005 (in United Kingdom) – Canada
2007 (in Kenya) – Australia
2009 (in Hong Kong) - South Africa
2011 (in India) Sri Lanka
2013 (in South Africa) United Kingdom
2015 (in Glasgow) – Canada
2017 (in Melbourne) – Australia
2019 (in Zambia)- Caribbean Regio