Motions released

Mark Gabriel writes:

The Motions Selection Committee for the 2007 World Schools Debating Championships has finalised its selections for the prepared motions to be debated by the teams at this year's championship is Seoul. They are as follows:

PRELIMINARY ROUND PREPARED MOTIONS

- This House believes that free trade harms the developing world

- This House believes that Holocaust denial should be a crime

- This House believes that the United States should withdraw from its military bases in Asia

- This House would make the development of clean industry a condition for receiving non-emergency aid

GRAND FINAL MOTION

- This House would abolish the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

Teams should arrive in Seoul prepared to debate both the Proposition and Opposition sides for each of the four preliminary round prepared motions.
The draw (listing which teams will be debating each other in each round, which teams will be in proposition and opposition for each debate, and the order in which the prepared motions will be debated) will only be released shortly before the start of the championship.

Whilst preparing for the debates, teams are strongly advised to read through the WSDC Guidelines on Defining Motions & Constructing Cases.

OTHER ROUNDS

All teams involved in the championships will participate in eight preliminary round debates - four of which will be prepared debates on the motions listed above,* and four of which will be impromptu debates for which the motions will be released only one hour in advance. The octo-finals, quarter-finals and semi-finals will also be impromptu debates.

(* Note: If the total number of participating teams is an odd number, one team will sit out each preliminary round and instead participate in a 'bye-round', so four teams will debate only three of the prepared motions if that is the case.)

For impromptu rounds, the team members will be kept in preparation rooms during the hour running up to the debate, and will not be allowed to consult with their coaches during that hour. Under the WSDC Rules, teams may not bring any published or handwritten materials into their preparation rooms for impromptu debates, except for one English Language dictionary, one bilingual dictionary, and one single-volume encyclopaedia or almanac. They are also not allowed to bring in any devices that are potentially capable of accessing information from outside the preparation room, such as mobile phones, laptop computers, pagers, PDAs, BlackBerries, etc.

Motions for all rounds of the competition are selected by the Motions Selection Committee, which consists of five members elected by the World Schools Debating Council and two members selected by the host organising committee. For 2007, the members of the Motions Selection Committee are: Mark Gabriel (Singapore), Andrea Coomber (Australia), Albert Fornis (Greece), Noel McGrath (Ireland), Christopher Bishop (New Zealand), Jumin Lee (South Korea) and Joshua Park (South Korea).

If you have any questions regarding the rules or format for debates at the championships, please feel free to e-mail me for clarification.

Best of luck with your team's preparations for the competition.

Regards,

Mark Gabriel
Chair, WSDC 2007 Motions Selection Committee /
Co-Chief Adjudicator, WSDC 2007 /
Secretary, World Schools Debating Council Executive Committee