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British Parliamentary style is a major form of academic debate that originated in Liverpool in the mid 1800s. [1] It has gained wide support globally and is the official format of the World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC). [2]
British Parliamentary debates consist of four teams, containing two speakers each, which are divided into two sides that speak for and against the motion. Due to the style's origins in British parliamentary procedure, the two sides are called the Government and the Opposition. Similarly, sides are known as benches, consisting of two teams - an opening team and a closing team. Teams compete against all three other teams in the round, including against its own opening or closing team, which it is not expected to help. The order of speeches alternates between the two benches, starting with the first government speaker, until all eight participants have spoken. Speeches are usually either five (secondary school level) or seven (university level) minutes in duration.
The first speaker from each bench is known as the PM/LO. They are responsible for defining the key terminologies, explaining the background or status quo and establishing the characterisation of the motion under which the debate will take place, along with forwarding arguments and their importance for their own teams (Opening Government or Opening Opposition).
The second speaker from each bench is known as the Deputy. Deputies may add new arguments to their team's substantive argument, but their primary responsibilities are to consolidate and rebuild the existing case, to launch challenges to the opposing bench, and to add additional weighing to their arguments to preemptively frame them against any extensions/new arguments from closing.
The third speaker from each bench (i.e., the first speaker for the closing sides), is known as the Member. Member speeches cannot contradict what has been said by their opening sides (i.e., knifing), unless the opening teams have conceded the debate or misinterpreted the motion. The primary duty of Members is to differentiate their side from their opening, by running either a clear vertical extension, flagging what parts of it are exclusively new, and be analytical for the actualisation of the arguments' benefits, or a horizontal extension and weighing it directly against other arguments in the round. They can also provide some brief response to the opening half of the debate as a whole, but this is not their primary goal.
The final speaker from each bench is known as the Whip. The primary duty of whip speakers is to note the major disagreement (point of clash) in the debate, and summarise, frame, and weigh the arguments presented in the debate and show that their team (Closing Government or Closing Opposition) wins the debate. Whip speakers can still provide new materials which are based on the arguments made by previous speakers in their own bench (still considered as extension), however, Whip speakers cannot make new arguments which are irrelevant to arguments made in previous speeches.
Speakers in the BP format can offer Points of Information (POIs) to opposing teams. To offer a POI during another speaker's speech, a debater may stand, say something such as "Point" or "Point of Information", and wait to be called on. The speaker may accept, reject, or ignore the POI. If they accept, the individual who offered the POI may state an argument, a rebuttal, or ask a question to the speaker for up to 15 seconds or until interrupted by the speaker. [3] Speakers may reject POIs with a physical cue (e.g. waving one's hand) or a verbal indication of rejection.
Speakers are granted "protected time", during which no points of information may be offered. Most commonly, this is the first and last minute of a speech.
Only speakers from the opposing bench may offer POIs to the current speaker. Speakers on the same side of the motion cannot do so even if they are from different teams (e.g. Opening and Closing Government may offer POIs to Opening Opposition, but Closing Opposition cannot).
The debating season closely follows the academic year in Northern Hemisphere countries. The first competitions are in Britain and Ireland in October and November, traditionally commenced by the Edinburgh Cup [4] in the first week of October, followed by the Cambridge and Oxford Inter-varsities (IVs), all the way up to the World Championships held over the Christmas holidays. After the "Worlds", the Trinity IV in Dublin, the premier tournament in Ireland, recommences the season in the new year. The season continues with a large number of Islands of the North Atlantic (IONA) and European competitions from March to June, including the HWS Round Robin normally held in early April. The European Championship, or Euros were initially held over the Easter break, but is now held over the summer, normally in July or August and concludes the European debating season.[ citation needed ]
The world championships, as well as many other tournaments, require team members to be registered students of a university or another tertiary-level institution. However, "open" tournaments also exist that allow non-students and composite teams to compete.
Currently, the British parliamentary debate model has been widely adopted in various parts of the world, fostering the development of debate circuits in languages other than English. While the World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) in English remains the most prestigious and largest debate competition globally, other languages have established their own parallel circuits, promoting linguistic diversity in formal debating.
The Spanish-language debate circuit stands out as the second-largest in terms of participation and international recognition. The flagship event in this circuit is the Campeonato Mundial Universitario de Debate en Español (CMUDE), which mirrors the WUDC in structure, rules, and format but is conducted entirely in Spanish. CMUDE gathers university debate teams from Spain, Latin America, and Spanish-speaking communities worldwide. [5]
Similar initiatives have also emerged in other languages, such as French, Arabic, and Portuguese, reflecting the growing interest in making debate accessible to non-English speakers. These circuits play a crucial role in developing global citizens who are well-versed in argumentation and public speaking, regardless of their native language.
The Canadian University Society for Intercollegiate Debate is the national organization which governs all English language competitive university debating and public speaking in Canada. It sanctions several official annual tournaments and represents Canadian debating domestically and abroad. Its membership consists of student debating unions, sanctioned by their respective universities, from across Canada. CUSID has been described as "a student-run, parliamentary debate league with close ties to the American Parliamentary Debate Association".
Debate is a process that involves formal discourse, discussion, and oral addresses on a particular topic or collection of topics, often with a moderator and an audience. In a debate, arguments are put forward for opposing viewpoints. Historically, debates have occurred in public meetings, academic institutions, debate halls, coffeehouses, competitions, and legislative assemblies. Debates have also been conducted for educational and recreational purposes, usually associated with educational establishments and debating societies. These debates emphasize logical consistency, factual accuracy, and emotional appeal to an audience. Modern competitive debate also includes rules for participants to discuss and decide upon the framework of the debate.
Policy debate is an American form of debate competition in which teams of two usually advocate for and against a resolution that typically calls for policy change by the United States federal government. It is also referred to as cross-examination debate because of the 3-minute questioning period following each constructive speech. Evidence presentation is a crucial part of policy debate. The main argument being debated during a round is to change or not change the status quo. When a team explains why their solvency is greater than the opposition's, they compare advantages. One team’s job is to argue that the resolution— the statement that we should make some specific change to a national or international problem —is a good idea. Affirmative teams generally present a plan as a proposal for implementation of the resolution. On the other hand, the Negative teams present arguments against the implementation of the resolution. In a single round of debate competition, each person gives two speeches. The first speech each person gives is called a “constructive” speech, because it is the speech when the first person of the team speaks positively, presenting the team's main idea without rebuttals that have not occurred, presents the basic arguments they will make throughout the debate. The second speech is called a “rebuttal”, because this is the speech where each person tries to rebut the arguments made by the other team, while using their own arguments to try to persuade the judge to vote for their team. The Affirmative has to persuade the judge to vote for the resolution, while the Negative has to persuade the judge the Negative's position is a better idea.
Congressional Debate is a competitive interscholastic high school debate event in the United States. The National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA), National Catholic Forensic League (NCFL) and many state associations and national invitational tournaments offer Congressional Debate as an event. Each organization and tournament offers its own rules, although the National Speech and Debate Association has championed standardization since 2007, when it began to ask its districts to use one of a number of procedures for qualification to its National Tournament.
The American Parliamentary Debate Association (APDA) is the oldest intercollegiate parliamentary debating association in the United States. APDA sponsors over 50 tournaments a year, all in a parliamentary format, as well as a national championship in late April. It also administers the North American Debating Championship with the Canadian University Society for Intercollegiate Debate (CUSID) every year in January. Although it is mainly funded by its member universities, APDA is an entirely student-run organization.
The National Parliamentary Debate Association (NPDA) is one of the two national intercollegiate parliamentary debate organizations in the United States. The other is the American Parliamentary Debate Association. Its membership is national with participating schools throughout the country. In 2015, NPDA was the largest debating organization in the United States with around 200-250 participating schools in any given year.
The World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) is the world's largest international debating tournament and one of the largest annual international student events. WUDC is held in the British Parliamentary format.
The World Schools Debating Championships (WSDC) is an annual English-language debating tournament for high school-level teams representing different nations.
Parliamentary style debate, colloquially oftentimes just Parliamentary debate, is a formal framework for debate used in debating societies, academic debate events and competitive debate. It has its roots in parliamentary procedure and develops differently in different countries as a result.
In competitive debate, most commonly in the World Schools, Karl Popper, and British Parliamentary debate styles, a point of information (POI) is when a member of the team opposing that of the current speaker gets to briefly interrupt the current speaker, offering a POI in the form of a question or a statement. This may be as a correction, asking for clarity, or just a plain question. As in some debating styles, such as World Schools Style, they often may not be offered in the first or last minute of any speech, or during reply speeches. Points of information may never be offered to a member of the same team.
World Schools Style debate is a debate format combining the British Parliamentary and Australia-Asian debating formats. Designed in 1988 to meet the needs of the World Schools Debating Championships tournament, it has become popular internationally as one of the main English high school debate formats.
Australia–Asia Debate, sometimes referred to as Australasian Debating or Australs Style, is a form of academic debate. In the past few years, this style of debating has increased in usage dramatically throughout Australia and New Zealand as well as the broader Asian region, but in the case of Asian countries including Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines, the format is also used alongside the British Parliamentary Format. The context in which the Australia-Asia style of debate is used varies, but it is commonly used in Australia at the primary and secondary school level, ranging from small informal one-off intra-school debates to larger more formal inter-school competitions with several rounds and a finals series which occur over a year. It is also commonly used at university level.
Square Off is a television debate program broadcast on the ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC). It broadcasts every Friday at 6:00 pm PST, with replays throughout the week. The show is hosted by Maiki Oreta and is primarily sponsored by the Philippine Graphic.
The Yale Debate Association (YDA) is Yale University's only competitive intercollegiate debate team. Founded in 1908, it is the most prolific winner of the American Parliamentary Debate Association's Club of the Year award. The YDA was also the first American team to win and have the top speaker at the modern World Championships. Currently, the YDA is the fourth-ranked collegiate debate society in the world, and as of January 2024, the highest ranked in North America.
The Harvard College Debating Union is Harvard University's only internationally competitive debate team. The union has won the most American Parliamentary Debate Association National Championships and the 2014, 2016 and 2018 World Universities Debating Championships.
The Debattierclub Stuttgart (DCS), also known as the Stuttgart Debating Union, is the debating society of the University of Stuttgart. It holds debates in both German and English. It was founded in 2004 and is now one of the internationally most successful German debating societies. The DCS is Vice World Champion and provided the Second Best Speaker of the World in English as a foreign language (EFL) at the World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) 2010. At WUDC 2011, the DCS provided the Fourth Best Speaker of the World in English as a second language (ESL) as well as the Best Speaker of the World in EFL.
The World Universities Debating Championship in Spanish or Campeonato Mundial Universitario de Debate en Español (CMUDE) is the world's largest and most important debating tournament in Spanish.
The Queen's Debating Union is the debating society of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. It was founded as Canada's first debating society in 1843 and became one of the four founding organisations of Canadian University Society for Intercollegiate Debate. It continues to be an active club on campus and has a strong presence both domestically and internationally as a competitive parliamentary debating club.
The United Kingdom has an uncodified constitution. The constitution consists of legislation, common law, Crown prerogative and constitutional conventions. Conventions may be written or unwritten. They are principles of behaviour which are not legally enforceable, but form part of the constitution by being enforced on a political, professional or personal level. Written conventions can be found in the Ministerial Code, Cabinet Manual, Guide to Judicial Conduct, Erskine May and even legislation. Unwritten conventions exist by virtue of long-practice or may be referenced in other documents such as the Lascelles Principles.
The HWS Round Robin (HWS RR) is an invitational British Parliamentary (BP) debate tournament hosted annually by the Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. Participation in the HWS RR is considered prestigious among BP debaters as it is limited to exactly 16 teams that qualify via either an automatic bid given to the champions of major debate tournaments that happen throughout the year, or a competitive application to the tournament's selections committee, with auto-bid teams given priority.