Your Role as the Judge

As a judge, you have a paramount role in the debate. Above all, you are the person who decides who won and who lost the the round. Hence, you need to be familiar with who needs to say what and why. Specifically, you should be well acquainted with our Guide to Parliamentary Debate. Note that you have a very active role in the debate. Since you will be the one who awards the debate to one team or the other, it is important that you listen carefully and keep track of what is said during the round. In other words, you should flow the rounds you are judging. More detailed instructions on how to decide a round will be presented below. Additionally, you should be mindful of your role as a member of the House.

During the round, you preside over the House as Mister or Madame Speaker. Accordinly, you are in charge of keeping order in the House and will be expected to make rulings on Points of Order and Points of Personal Privilege. Additionally, as the Speaker of the House, it will be up to you to direct Members to begin their speeches. While acting as the Speaker, you should follow this judging script:

After the Government has been allowed 10 minutes to prepare, and the debaters are properly seated in the room (Government to your right, Opposition to your left) you begin:

"I call this House to order. We call upon the Prime Minister to open the case for the government, reminding him that he has 7 minutes in which to do so."

The other speakers will respond "Here, here!" and the Prime Minister will begin delivering his speech. During the round, an Opposition member may stand up and make a hand gesture as if trying to hold on a wig. He is trying to raise a Point of Information, and it is up to the Prime Minister as to whether or not he is willing to cede some of his time to the Opposition Member. You don't have to do anything when a Member rises for a Point of Information. Similarly, if the Member of the Opposition stands up and says, "I rise to a Point of Clarification," all you have to do is stop time. The Member of the Opposition will ask the Prime Minister to clarify some element of the case at hand, and once the Prime Minister does so, you should start time again. On the other hand, if an Opposition Member rises with the words, "Mr. Speaker, I rise to a Point of Order," or "Mr. Speaker, I rise to a Point of Personal Priviledge," the Prime Minister should stop delivering his speech (if he doesn't, direct him to), and you should then reply, "State your point." The Member will then accuse the Prime Minister of some violation. If you believe that the Prime Minister has, in fact, violated some rule, you should state "The Point is well taken." Otherwise, rule the point "not well taken." If you need to consult your notes before making a decion, rule the point "under consideration" and direct the Prime Minister to continue with his speech. Regardless of how you decide the point, make note of your ruling. Points that are "well taken" should count against the violating team as you decide who won the debate. Similarly, points that are "not well taken" should count against the team that raised them. Some Points require additional remedies. Click here for more details: Points of Order and Points of Personal Privilege.

Throughout the round, Points should be handled as described above.

When the Prime Minister finishes speaking, you continue:

"We thank the Prime Minister for his remarks and call upon the Leader of the Opposition to open the case for the Oppostion, reminding him that he has 8 minutes in which to do so."

At the conclusion of the Leader of the Opposition's remarks, you say:

"We thank the Leader of the Opposition for his remarks and call upon the Member of the Government to continue the case for the Government, reminding him that he has 8 minutes in which to do so."

After the Member of the Government has finished, call upon the Member of the Opposition:

"We thank the Member of the Government for his remarks and call upon the Member of the Opposition to continue the case for the Opposition, reminding him that he has 8 minutes in which to do so."

The Member of the Opposition delivers the last constructive speech. When he is done, you begin the rebuttal phase of the debate:

"We thank the Member of the Opposition for his remarks, and call upon the Leader of the Opposition to conclude the case for the Opposition, reminding him that he has four minutes in which to do so, and may introduce new examples but not new lines or argument."

After the Leader of the Opposition delivers his rebuttal, the Prime Minister delivers the last speech of the round. You should call him to do so:

"We thank the Leader of the Opposition for his remarks, and call upon the Prime Minister to conclude the case for the Government, reminding him that he has four minutes in which to do so, and may introduce new examples but not new lines or argument."

Finally, you declare the house adjourned:

"We thank the Prime Minister for his remarks, and we declare this House adjourned."

Once the round is over, you should feel free (but not obligated) to give the debaters any comments that you think might help them in the next round. However, you should not tell them who won the debate. Any comments that you give should be brief and balanced.

As soon as you are done, go immediately to the Tab Room to complete your ballot. You will need to make several decisions. First, you will need to decide what team won the round. You must consider all 6 speeches in making this decision. Also, you may not consider your own opinions on the topic or any arguments that were not made during the round. Your deliberations should be restricted to considerations about the quality of the logic, argumentation, structure, style, teamwork and delivery that you observed during the debate. Remember, the Government has the burden of proof. If you feel that they have adequately proved their case, they have won the round. On the other hand, if you are unsure as to whether or not to go along with the Government proposal, you should award the debate to the Opposition (a tie goes to Opp).

Second, you will need to evaluate the individual speakers. Based on the same criteria as above (logic, argumentation, structure, style, teamwork and delivery), you need to award speaker points to each speaker. Simply find the appropriate description on our Scoring Rubric and copy the corresponding score onto your ballot. Note that the team that wins the debate must have more speaker points than the team that lost.

Complete the white copy of the ballot without comments and put it in the pile of ballots that are to be tabbed. Then, go back and write comments on the other copies of the ballot. This set of comments should make it perfectly clear to the debaters why you made the decsions that you did. Once you turn these ballots in, go to the judges room to check in for your next round . Even after your ballots are submitted, you should not tell teams whether they won or lost. Teams will get copies of their ballots at the end of the tournament.
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