John Smith Memorial Mace:
England

2007-2008 Competition
This year’s England Mace will be held in Dartmouth House, the Headquarters of the English-Speaking Union in central London, on Friday 23rd and Saturday 4th of November. Registration will open at 5pm and all teams must have registered by 6pm. To register you should download and fill in the entry form. All institutions in England are guaranteed up to three team places if they register before Friday 10 November. After that date places will be allocated to institutions requesting additional teams except where an applicant institution is entering for the first time in three years or more, in which case every effort will be made to accept at least one team from that institution.

Registration costs £30 for the first team from an institution and £40 for each subsequent team, but institutions entering a team for the first time in five years or more are eligible to apply for free entry.  Registration refund is conditional upon completion of the competition i.e. participation in all of the preliminary rounds.

Re-registration will be open on Saturday morning between 9am and 9.30am and any teams who have not re-registered by 9.30am will only be allowed to compete in the tournament under exceptional circumstances, and at the convenor’s discretion. Your registration fee includes a limited selection of free drinks on Friday evening for those participants aged 18 and over, and a buffet reception at the Chesterfield Hotel (next door to Dartmouth House) on the Saturday evening. Crash accommodation cannot be provided and we suggest that you make your own arrangements for staying in London before arrival.

The competition consists of six rounds of debating in British Parliamentary style followed by a ‘break’ of the eight highest-scoring teams to semi-finals.  Responsibility for choosing motions and selecting judging panels is shared between the ESU and a convenor for the tournament chosen from recent university debaters.  Motions shall be a mixture of closed, semi-open, and analysis.  Closed motions and analysis motions should be run straight.  Expectations for semi-open and analysis debates shall be outlined at the competition.

Motions

This year only one motion at the England leg of the ESU John Smith Memorial Mace, sponsored by Baillie Gifford, is pre-announced. This year’s pre-announced motion, for one of the preliminary rounds, is:

“This House would introduce punitive damages to civil law in England and Wales.”

Convenor

This year's England Convenor is Richard Osborne.

Workshops

There is a workshop on offer for novice teams, run by ESU staff, which will take place in Dartmouth House on Friday 23rd between 3pm and 5pm. It is free for institutions entering for the first time in three years or more, and £20 per team for all other institutions.  If you would like to have speakers attend the workshop, please fill in the relevant portion of the entry form accordingly.

Downloads

John Smith Memorial Mace 2007-08 England Leg: Registration Form Download this form and return it to Patrick Emerson at the ESU.

Sponsors

This year’s ESU John Smith Memorial Mace is sponsored by Baillie Gifford.