Cuttack, March 12: The National Law University, Odisha, will host the second Maritime Law Moot Court competition starting from March 27.

Teams from over 24 law schools will take part in the event focusing on international arbitration based on a charter party dispute.

The competition is being jointly hosted by the university's moot society with assistance from the Paradip Port Trust and others, an official said today.

"The programme is being organised to encourage students, and at the same time, provide them with basic knowledge about court proceedings," said vice-chancellor Srikrishna Devarao.

Devarao said this year's subject had been solely designed to acknowledge the maritime operations in the state. This will encourage intellectual discourse in the field of maritime law.

In 2014, the university conducted the first maritime moot court competition, which had solely based on insurance related facets of maritime law.

A varsity official said moot court competitions were an attempt to provide extensive and practical knowledge to the students beyond the traditional academics.

"As law students, moot court competitions provides a practical experience as we have to present ourselves by taking up cases before sitting judges and other eminent personalities from the legal fraternity," said Shreya Singh, a student.

Singh said that for the law students, such kind of events also raised the bar as they got scope to interact with students from various law schools and colleges from across the country. Besides, it also develops a good sense of reasoning and helps the students get to know about various court etiquettes, she said.

The official said the champion teams would be awarded cash awards, and the best speakers and the best teams would be facilitated on the concluding day on March 29.

Apart from the moot court, a lot of programmes are also being made for successfully hosting the convocation, which will be attended by President Pranab Mukherjee in August.