Playing Lawyer and the Supreme Student Court

Playing lawyer has never been this fun especially when you actually get to apply what you’ve learned to an actual "political" controversy. I am not talking about some court room drama here; this is just my expression of thrill and satisfaction that I get to help argue a side before a court – well, a student court. It is not every day that a sophomore law student can at least have his day in court – again a student court.

I must say that I am amazed at how the Supreme Student Court takes its job so seriously. I mean with real actual pleadings, oral arguments, contempt of court, and so on. It is like the real thing. And they get to argue on constitutionality and those kinds of stuff. Awesome!

Being legal consultant for a branch of student government arguing for the validity of a law it passed is fun!  I am tapped to defend the constitutionality of a law we passed during our administration two years ago which created a quota system for the student elections. What it basically does is to provide a voters’ turn out ceiling and if it is not met, a failure of election shall be declared and new elections shall be conducted. The other side alleges that it violates the students’ right to vote. So of course, I must argue that it does not and I personally believe it does not violate such right at all. I do not wish to lay the arguments in this entry.We already submitted our answers to their allegations and let us see how the proceedings will unfold. 

The value I get from this exciting little internship is the formative value this exercise possesses not just for students of law but for the undergraduate community as well. This kind of zealousness in part of the Supreme Student  Court serves a powerful incubator for future legal thinkers. I strongly recommend that this should be explored and developed even further. Through the workings of the Student Supreme Court, the students can appropriate their own localized understanding of what due process is and what the rule of law is and most importantly, the importance of committed engagement for the attainment of justice – the stuff of change leaders.