law essay competition year 12

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Gwyneth Bebb Law Essay Competition

Home → Study Here → Outreach → Essay Competitions → Gwyneth Bebb Law Essay Competition

Gwyneth Bebb (1889-1921), was one of the first women to be awarded a degree in Law at Oxford, and the first to achieve first-class honours; she was an educational and legal pioneer.

The Principal and Fellows of St Hugh’s College are pleased to offer a prize of up to £500 for the best essay written in response the question:

Defend one of the following two propositions:

• The deployment of juries as part of this country’s criminal trial procedure should be abolished.
• There is no particular reason for our judiciary to be representative of this country’s population.

No detailed knowledge of English law is required to answer it; indeed, while cases reported in the national media may be referred to, entrants should not look to cite any specific case law or statutes in their work. Rather, they are encouraged to think about things a matter of principle. The judges will be looking out for an entrant’s ability to reason from wider precepts and to construct clear and coherent arguments.

Entry is restricted to pupils who, at the closing date, have been in the Sixth Form of any state-funded school or college for a period of not more than two years.

2023 winners

First Place

Carmen Buckingham, Y12, Richard Huish College: Are there any legal decisions which judges should not take?

Second Place

Aqsa Mahmood, Y12, Dr Challoner’s High School: Are there any legal decisions which judges should not take?

Third Place

Mariana Fedchyshyn, Y12, Reigate College: Are there any legal decisions which judges should not take?

The winners and a number of those who had done particularly well were invited to tea in College in September.

2024 Poster

Cover Sheet

Gwyneth Bebb Submissions Form

Please use this form to upload your submission for the Gwyneth Bebb Competition. Please do not forget to upload the Cover Sheet with your submission.

• First Name *
• Name of School *
• Your Essay Title *
• E-Mail Address *
• Upload Your Essay and Cover Sheet * Drop files here or Select files Accepted file types: docx, doc, pdf, docx, doc, pdf, docx, doc, pdf, docx, doc, pdf, Max. file size: 128 MB. empty to support CSS :empty selector. --> Please upload an electronic copy of your Essay, together with the completed Cover Sheet, in Word format. Please note that Essays should be no more than 4000 words in length.

Privacy Overview

Trinity College was pleased to launch the Robert Walker Prize for Essays in Law in 2013. The prize is named after the Rt Hon. The Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe GBS PC (1938–2023), a judicial member of the House of Lords from 2002 and Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom from its creation in 2009 until his retirement in 2013. Lord Walker read law at Trinity, and became an Honorary Fellow of the College in 2006. He was a generous and dedicated supporter of Law at Trinity, meeting current and prospective students at College events, judging moots (legal debates) and helping to connect the practice of law with its academic study.

The Robert Walker Prize has three objectives:

• to encourage students with an interest in Law to explore that interest by researching, considering and developing an argument about a legal topic of importance to modern society;
• to encourage those interested in Law to apply for a university course in Law; and
• to recognise the achievements of high-calibre students, from whatever background they may come.

The 2024 competition has closed.

The rules for the competition are as set out below:

• Essays can be of any length up to 2,000 words (including any footnotes).
• If there are special reasons why a potential candidate cannot submit an essay online, a request exceptionally to submit in hard copy may be made. Requests will be considered by the Law Fellows. Please contact the Admissions Office at Trinity College Cambridge, CB2 1TQ; tel: +44(0)1223 338422; fax: +44 (0)1223 338584; email:  [email protected] .
• The competition is open to students in their final or penultimate year of secondary school, except students who have entered the competition in the past. No individual student may submit more than one entry into the competition.
• Candidates may discuss the subject matter of the essay with other students and teachers at their school; however, the formulation of the argument and the writing of the essay must be the work of the student alone.
• Essays will be assessed by reference to a range of factors, including the development of argument, the quality of expression and the appropriate use of supporting facts and material.
• Entries will be considered in two divisions: a United Kingdom Division and an International Division.
• It is anticipated that first prizes of £300 and second prizes of £200 may be awarded in each Division; the prizes may be shared.
• It is anticipated that the authors of the ten top-placed essays in each Division will be invited to a Prize Ceremony at Trinity to see the College and to meet the Law Fellows.
• The decisions of the judges are final; no correspondence will be entered into. Essays will not be returned, so candidates should keep a copy for their own reference.

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PAST ROBERT WALKER PRIZE-WINNERS

2023 (153 entries):

First Prize (United Kingdom Division): Chloe Green, Royal Grammar School Newcastle First Prize (International Division): Minh Phuong Dang Tran, Raffles Institution (Singapore) Second Prize (United Kingdom Division): Jessica Williamson, Tiffin Girls’ School Second Prize (International Division): Ziqi Li, Shenzhen High School (China)

2022 (172 entries):

First Prize (United Kingdom Division): Jiwon Heo, St Paul’s Girls’ School First Prize (International Division): Kaitlyn B Wong, Chinese International School (Hong Kong) Second Prize (United Kingdom Division): Toby Bowles, Rushcliffe Spencer Academy Second Prize (International Division): Nikki Han, Queenwood School for Girls (Australia)

2021 (278 entries):

First Prize (United Kingdom Division): Ben Mays (Colyton Grammar School) First Prize (International Division): Yu Du (Raffles Institution, Singapore)

Second Prize (United Kingdom Division): Afzal Hussain (Eton College) Second Prize (International Division): Judy Yi Ting Ma (Presbyterian Ladies’ College, Australia)

2020 (175 entries):

First Prize (United Kingdom Division): George Hargreaves (Royal Grammar School, Guildford) First Prize (International Division): Antonia Vig (Colegiul Național Alexandru Papiu Ilarian, Romania) Second Prize (United Kingdom Division): Charlotte Fowler (Highgate School) Second Prize (International Division): Annabelle Chua (Hwa Chong Institution, Singapore)

2019 (107 entries):

First Prize (United Kingdom Division): Christopher Long (Woodbridge School) First Prize (International Division): Jonathan Teng (Raffles Institution) Second Prize (United Kingdom Division): Eleanor Hargrove (King’s College School, Wimbledon) Second Prize (International Division): Wong Zi Yang (Raffles Institution)

2018 (154 entries):

First Prize (United Kingdom Division): David Edwards-Ker (Westminster School) First Prize (International Division): Gergely Berces (Milestone Institute, Hungary) Second Prize (United Kingdom Division): Dorothy Biyere (Sutton Grammar School) Second Prize (International Division): Xinyi Gao (Hwa Chong Institution, Singapore)

2017 (135 entries):

First Prize (United Kingdom Division): Eve Loveman (Peter Symonds’ College) First Prize (International Division): Lauren Park (Pymble Ladies’ College, Australia) Second Prize (United Kingdom Division): Mary Hassan (St. Michael’s Catholic Grammar School) Second Prize (International Division): Ruilin Fang (Dunman High School, Singapore)

2016 (112 entries):

First Prize (United Kingdom Division): Ellis Napier (Lawnswood School) First Prize (International Division): Allegra McCormack (Kambala, Australia) Second Prize (United Kingdom Division): Johnny McCausland (Wellington College) Second Prize (International Division): Gabriel Tan Jin Hsi (Hwa Chong Institution, Singapore)

First Prize (shared): Charlotte Witney (Saffron Walden County High School) First Prize (shared): Ricky Ham (Pymble Ladies’ College, Australia) Second Prize (shared): Priya Radia (North London Collegiate School) Second Prize (shared): Katharine Cook (Wellington College)

First Prize: Noelle Huang (Hwa Chong Institution, Singapore) Second Prize: John Cheung (Abingdon School)

First Prize: Emily Harbach (Haberdashers’ Aske’s School for Girls) Second Prize: Alistair Ho (Merchant Taylors’ School)

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Essay Competitions for Year 12 Students: A Complete Guide

I must confess that essay competitions were not a thing when I applied to uni. But then when I applied to uni, all that was required was a decent pass in all my A-Levels and a part-time job in McDonalds. The story for today’s teens is not so simple.

Today I’m sharing a guide to independent essay competitions run by colleges and other organisations. This is a chance for students to share work they’ve already done, or create a fresh essay on a topic set by the organisers.

While you’re here, don’t miss our other guides for Year 12 students:

• Complete guide to pre-university summer schools
• Oxford and Cambridge admission tips from an admissions director
• 50+ super curricular activities for Year 12 students

Table of Contents

Why essay competitions are useful

Essay competitions for Year 12 students are a great way to build up your UCAS application. They’re a great example of a super-curricular activity. They show universities that you have a genuine interest in a subject, and expending your learning beyond the classroom.

This is important if you are applying for a competitive course like English or Psychology, or a competitive university like Oxford or Cambridge. We’ve focused on English and humanities here because that’s what my teen is researching. But if you want to study something else, this guide includes relevant essay competitions in other areas for Year 12 including law, philosophy and history.

There are essay competitions in LOADS of subject areas. The below essay competitions for Year 12 (and sometimes other years) could help. Not only by showing your commitment. If you win a prize, then you could mention this in an application. Some essay competition prizes include attendance at a university open day, providing a valuable way to stand out to admissions teams.

Complete Guide to Essay Competitions for English Lit Students

Below you’ll find a list of Year 12 essay writing competitions that are aimed at, or suitable for, English students. Some of these competitions won’t open until later in the academic year. Others are open for entry in 2024 for students applying to university in 2024/25. I’ve indicated a month of closing for each competition. I’ve also provided a brief description of each competition and details of prizes. Click through to find out more.

Girton College Humanities Writing Competition

Girton College, Cambridge, runs an annual competition for humanities essays, which is suitable for students wanting to apply for English at university. It’s also a great opportunity for students of history, geography, economics and other humanities.

The essay prompt is an exhibit from the college’s museum collection, and students are invited to submit an essay inspired by that item. Winners receive prizes of up to £200. It’s worth noting that only three students per school can enter this competition. The submission deadline is MARCH and the prize is £200.

Find out more  

Minds Underground Essay Competitions

This scientific focused from Minds Underground essay competition has a category aimed at ‘senior’ students, which means Year 12. There are actually multiple essay categories covering science, geography, medicine, veterinary science along with history, english and classics.  The submission deadline for all categories is April 3, 2024.

Find out more

Immerse Education Essay Competition

This annual essay competition has an unusual prize – a place at the annual pre-university summer school run by Immerse Education in Oxford, Cambridge or London. It’s a highly competitive competition and the standard of entries is high. The deadline is January each year, further details available online.

Sheffield Philosophy Essay Competition

This competition has small prizes of £50 but worth entering for the kudos. It’s open to students in Years 10, 11 and 12, and invites you to write an essay of 1,500 words on one of five ethical/moral questions like ‘Can animals be moral?’. The competition opens in January and closes in May.

Sheffield History Essay Competition

The University of Sheffield is also running a history essay competition for 2024, which is open until April 26, 2024. To enter the competition, Y12 students must create a 1500 word essay on one of 5 history prompts. Worth noting you can win £100 if you get a prize, but there can only be two entrants from each school or college.

ISA Essay Competition

While some competitions are only open to state school students, the ISA Essay challenge is open only to students attending independent schools that are part of the Independent Schools Association.

The competition is open to students of all ages and entries are judged in various categories, including one for Year 12 and 13 students. The competition opens in February 2024 and closes in May. There’s also an annual poetry competition that might be worth considering for literature students.

Find out more 

New College of Humanities Essay Challenge

NCH London also runs an annual essay competition for Year 12 students, which is open worldwide. The contest includes various categories that may be of interest to future English students. Entry is open to students in Year 12, and the essay prompts will be published on September 5 or thereabouts. Students need to submit a 1,500 word essay by the following January. The overall winner of this competition gets a £1,000 prize. There’s also £500 or £200 for the runners up.

NU London Essay Competition

This competition is not yet open for 2024, but information on the annual essay competition run by the Northeastern University, London can be found online. The competition is open to students in Year 12, and covers technology, social science and humanities topics. Expect questions to be posted in January and the competition usually runs until April.

Fitzwilliam College Essay Competitions (various)

This year, Fitzwilliam college, Cambridge, is running a series of essay competitions in Ancient World and Classics, Archaeology, Economics, History, Land Economy, Medieval World and Slavonic Studies. Entries must be submitted by the end of March 2024. Students must be in year 12 and there is a limit of 5 applications per school per competition. Helpfully, the college is running a couple of webinars in essay writing, to help students make the most of the competition.

The Hugo Young Award

If you’re a budding journalist or activist, the Hugo Young award is run annually by the Guardian newspaper and is open to people aged 16-25. The prize is to create a short piece of journalism on a topic of your choosing.

There is a specific category for 16-18 year olds (if you’re under 18, you’ll need an adult to confirm your entry) and the award is open to anyone from a state school background, although entries from traditionally under-represented groups are especially welcome. You can win £100 in book vouchers, a Guardian subscription and certificate.

The Rex Nettleford Prize

Run by Oriel College, Oxford, this essay competition focuses on the enduring influence of colonialism on our lives. The rules encourage students to engage with the legacies of colonialism in all its forms – historical, political, economic, social, cultural. Entry is via a 2,500 word essay, and is open to students in Year 12. The prize is £250, and your entry needs to be submitted by 15 March, 2024.

Magdalene College Essay Competition 2024

This competition has not yet opened for 2024, but you can register for more information and to get an alert when entries open. Traditionally, the competition is open to arts and humanities students in Year 12, and is open to students currently in state school education.

Newnham College Essay Competitions

The Newnham competition has been in the news recently because it has changed its rules so that students from independent schools may NOT enter their essay competition. Newnham is a Cambridge college, and as such, they’re trying to distance themselves from the idea that they favour students from privileged backgrounds. Fair enough.

The Newnham competition offers a number of essay prizes, that are open to female students in Year 12. The college provides webinars and guides outlining how to submit and create your essay. Entries are submitted each March, and there is a maximum of four entries permitted in each subject, per school. Details of the Woolf essay, which opens each summer, can be found online.

LSE Undergraduate Political Review

This competition has not yet been opened for 2024 but you can see the format of the competition for 2023 and the winning entries on the LSE UPR website.

This competition invites students in Year 12 to write an 1,000 word essay on a political prompt. The prize includes a £100 Amazon voucher, a certificate signed by the head of LSE’s government department and a chance to present at the annual LSEUPR conference.

Trust for Sustainable Living Essay Prize

This competition is open to school students of all ages but the secondary category is for students aged 11-18 and only requires a 600-word essay on a topic around sustainability.The brief for 2024 – “How can nature help us achieve the UN SDGs in my community?” You will need to have your entry submitted by a teacher or other adult aged 18+.

The Peter Cane Legal Reasoning Prize

If you’re an aspiring lawyer in Year 12 or Year 13, this competition by Corpus Christi College, Oxford. The competition opens in January and closes in February. Winning entrants will be invited to a debate at the college later in the year. This year’s essay prompt is a hypothetical legal case and students are invited to submit an essay outlining their view of the case and reasons why they take the position they do.

The Libra Essay Prize

The Libra competition is for students in Y11 and Y12 preparing for university – it opens each year in January and closes in April 2024. There are actually essay questions across eight categories including science, English, history, economics and more. Essays can be up to 2,000 words and winners will receive vouchers of up to £50 for each category.

Royal Institute of Philosophy Essay Competition

If you reckon you could write 1,200 words on the theme ‘Can Machines Think’ then you might be up for the first ever Royal Institute of Philosophy Think! essay competition. There aren’t any monetary prizes but the winners’ entries will be published by the Institute and that’s got to be worth mentioning on your university application!

The St Johns College Classics and Ancient History Prize

This annual competition is now open and closes in March 2024. There are questions for students of classics and history, including classical literature. To enter, students must submit a 2,000 word essay on one of five questions, and could win a £100 book voucher as a prize. In addition, everyone who submits an essay is invited to the college for an open day, including tours and workshops.

Oxford IQ Essay Competition

Similar to the Immerse Education essay competition, the Oxford IQ essay competition gives students the chance to win a free place on a summer pre-university programme in Oxford. Essays are judged on a rolling basis, but must be submitted by March 2024. Entering is something of a process. You need to first register interest in the summer programme including writing a statement on why you want to attend the session, and you’ll receive details of the competition and the essay questions within 48 hours. You can then start your entry, and you’ll be informed within a week of submission if you have been successful.

The Mary Renault Prize

St Hughes College Oxford runs two essay competitions each year. The first focuses on history , the second on classics. The classics essay is worth considering if you’re aiming for an English degree. The competition welcomes entries from students not currently studying Latin/Greek at A-Level, and your essay can focus on classical literature. There are 2 prizes available, worth up to £500. Entries must be 2,000-2,400 words and submitted by late July. Winners are also invited to visit the college for tea!

Queens College Year 12 Essay Contest

Queens College Cambridge runs an annual English essay competition for Year 12 students, demanding a 2500 word essay for a change to win a £500 prize! Entries close in March and the winner is announced in May. In addition to the cash prize, the winner is invited to the college open day and several previous winners went on to study at Cambridge.

The John Locke Institute International Essay Competition

While not strictly aimed at English students, this global contest is very well known and the breadth of topics means you can take a literary approach to another discipline. Students can submit essays across seven different subjects. They are Philosophy, Politics, Economics, History, Psychology, Theology and Law. There are three questions set for each topic, and you can choose your favourite. Entries close in June each year.

The Betty Haigh Prize

Many sixth form students of literature will study Shakespeare and this essay competition is the perfect place to showcase your best work.

To enter the competition, students need to write a 1500 word essay that compares a scene in a Shakespeare tragedy to a film or TV adaptation, OR write a standalone essay exploring how a TV or film adaptation of a Shakespeare drama has thrown new light on the original text. Entries close in September 2024, and winners generally receive book vouchers as prizes.

Gould Prize for English Literature

One of the best essay competitions for english students is the Gould Prize, which is awarded annually by Trinity College, Cambridge.

Candidates are invited each year to submit an essay of between 1,500 and 2,500 words on a topic to be chosen from the list of questions. Entries must be submitted by August 1, with a first prize of £600 to be split between the student and their school or college. Each year there are six questions to choose from, covering novels, poetry and drama.

Robinson College Essay Prize

You don’t enter the Robinson College essay competition because of the prizes – you’ll get a £50 book token if you win. But you’ll get lots of kudos AND an invite to a celebratory award lunch at the college, where you can meet the dean. Similar to the Gould prize, the Robinson College prize poses a series of challenging questions and invites students to answer them from their own perspective. Questions are carefully selected so they’re applicable to literature but also philosophy, history, law and science. This particular competition will not run in 2024.

There you have it! 26 of the best essay competitions for Year 12 students, that you can apply for in 2022. Missed something from our guide? Let me know in the comments!

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Law Scholarships

Benefit from financial support (£2500 per year) during your university studies, plus mentoring and paid work experience.

About the CMS Law Scholarship

Scholarship, mentoring and work experience throughout your time at university

Applications are now open!

We believe that a career in law should be open to everyone. Since 2012, we’ve helped some of the brightest and most creative legal minds launch their career. The Law Scholarship scheme provides financial assistance, mentoring, guidance throughout the UCAS application process, sustained support throughout undergraduate studies and valuable paid work experience.

We are proud that CMS Law Scholarship winners have gone on to study at some of the UK’s most prestigious universities and have secured training contracts at some of the world’s largest law firms, including CMS.

Across the UK

Eligibility

• Year 12 students (England and Wales)
• Year 13 students (Northern Ireland)
• S5 students (Scotland)

Our Scholarships are for those from backgrounds which research shows are less likely to secure a place at a prestigious university or establish a career in law.

Application deadlines

We run two Law Scholarship programmes: the England, Wales and Northern Ireland programme and the Scotland programme. The two programmes are incredibly similar, however it is important that you apply to the programme that reflects your current location.

Please note the programmes have different deadlines:

• England, Wales and Northern Ireland – 12 July 2024
• Scotland – 19 June 2024

Applications are now open! Click here to apply.

What to expect

Win a Scholarship and, to give you a head start in your law career, we’ll provide you with the following.

(Mentoring, paid work experience, fast track to assessment days and ongoing support are offered to everyone who is invited to an assessment day, regardless of whether they win a Scholarship or not.)

Financial support

Up to 10 individuals will receive £2500 per year for each year of their degree

Support from one of our lawyers with your UCAS application and the LNAT examination if you are planning on taking this, and a trainee buddy to give more informal support with starting your career in law

Work experience

The opportunity to complete a bespoke work experience programme in your first year of university – and be paid £450 to do so!

Fast-track opportunities

Many participants on this programme are fast-tracked to future Emerging Talent programmes and assessment centres for our Training Contract

Sustained support

From budgeting workshops to graduation celebrations, you can expect our support and guidance throughout your undergraduate studies and beyond

UCAS and LNAT reimbursement

All finalists who attend the assessment day are eligible to receive reimbursement for the expenses incurred in relation to the UCAS application and LNAT examination

You must meet all the following criteria to be eligible;

• You’re in Year 12 in England & Wales, Year 13 in Northern Ireland or S5 in Scotland*
• You attend a state-funded school, sixth form or further education college
• Your parents and grandparents did not attend university
• You intend to apply to study at university through the 2024 / 2025 UCAS process (if applying to our Scottish Scholarship programme you will need to apply to study an LLB accredited by the Law Society of Scotland. Full details can be found here )
• You are passionate about pursuing a career in law
• You have not been convicted of a criminal offence
• You are not related to any partner here at CMS

* The scheme is also open to any S6 students in Scotland who do not yet have a place at university confirmed

You also meet one of the following criteria:

• You are, or have been at any time between ages 11 and 16, eligible for free school meals (or would be if you attended a sixth form or college). Further resources regarding these free school meals are available for England & Wales , Northern Ireland and Scotland .
• Your school from years 7–11 (or S1–S5 in Scotland) has 20% or more students eligible for free school meals. Further resources regarding these free school meals are available for England , Wales , Northern Ireland and Scotland .
• You are, or have been, a child looked after/care experienced
• Your home address is in POLAR4 quintile 1 ⓘ

ⓘ Check your postcode for eligibility . If you are unsure about your eligibility or would like more information, please contact us at [email protected]

Application process

Interested in applying? Here’s an outline of the different stages involved.

Essay competition and online application form

We’ll ask you to write an essay of 750 – 1000 words on a choice of two topics, and complete an application form telling us more about you, what winning a scholarship would mean, and why you’re interested in a career in law. The essay questions for 2024 are:

• “Anyone should be allowed to buy vapes if they want.” Do you agree?
• Should countries be able to strip someone of their citizenship?

You will also be asked two motivational questions. These are:

• Please tell us about your proudest achievement. This could be from any aspect of your life (e.g. it doesn’t have to be an academic achievement). (Maximum 200 words)

In your response please include:

• What challenges did you have to overcome to achieve this outcome?
• What did you learn about yourself from this experience?
• What motivated you to apply to CMS and what do you hope to gain from this experience? (Maximum 200 words)
• What aspects of a career in law interest you the most?
• How does the opportunity offered at CMS support your future aspirations?

Each answer to the motivational questions should be 200 words long. You should also remember to:

• Check your spelling and grammar carefully
• Use the full word count
• Research CMS and the type of work we do here.

Assessment day

Consists of an interview and group exercise. During the day you’ll also have the chance to talk to our trainees about life at CMS and meet your mentor. If necessary, we’ll offer financial support (and accommodation) to enable you to attend. Further details can be found in our FAQs.

Important dates for your diary

We run two Law Scholarship programmes: the England, Wales and Northern Ireland programme  and the Scotland programme. The two programmes are incredibly similar, however it is important that you apply to the programme that reflects your current location. Please note that the programmes have different deadlines.

You may also be interested in our work experience programme: CMS Connect . If you’d like to find out more about these programmes then join us on 2nd May 2024 for the Launch and Learn Webinar. You’ll rub shoulders with programme alumni, uncover insider tips to elevate your application, and discover how these opportunities can benefit you, your students or your community. This event is open to students, teachers, careers advisors, parents and carers, and friends of CMS. You can sign up here.

Law Scholarship FAQs

We believe that no student should miss out because they cannot afford to travel to our assessment day. We will arrange and pay for you and, if required, one accompanying adult to travel and, if necessary, receive accommodation for one night to enable you to attend the day.

You will have a choice of two topics on an ethical theme. You do not need to know any law to answer the questions.

Your essay should be between 750 – 1000 words in total and submitted online as part of our application form. It should be entirely your own work and we may check this if we consider it necessary.

You should reference any sources you’ve used and include any extracts from them in quotation marks. You may use footnotes and these will not be included in the word count (your references, however, will be included).

You must be highly motivated, and you should be on track to securing a place at your chosen university. Our approach, however, is to review applications holistically.

That’s to say, we want to learn more about you as an individual – your interests, experiences to date and your approach to the essay question. We will review your academic achievements, but in the context they’ve been achieved.

Unfortunately not. If your parents or grandparents attended university in the UK or abroad, you will not be eligible. You can be eligible if your brothers, sisters or cousins went to university, as they are the same generation as you.

Any further questions?

Take a look at our FAQs page

Princeton Legal Journal

Spring 2024 High School Essay Competition

Central to the PLJ’s mission is to provide opportunities for students to explore their own legal interests and to develop their personal editing and writing skills. As a result, the PLJ runs a writing competition for high school students to extend this engagement and accessibility to the law.

Spring 2024:

Topic: The First Amendment in Public Life

Winners: Matt Berkery, Maclain Conlin, & Luke Hwang.

Honorable Mentions: Ekaterina Chasovnikova, Ellie Sohn, & Pranav Gorty.

Speak Up: Speech First, Inc v. Sands, the Supreme Court, and Free Speech on College Campuses

Limiting Corporate Speech without Coercion?

Online Defamation: First Amendment Rights and Legal Standards for Unmasking the Identities of Anonymous Defendants

Spring 2023:

Topic: Emerging Issues in Law and Technology

Winners: Beatrice Neilson, Caroline Quirk, & Kaylee Yang.

Honorable Mentions: Deirdre Chau, Carson Loveless, Erica Yip, & Yike Zhang.

Carpenter v. United States, the Stored Communications Act, & the Third Party Doctrine in the Digital Age

The High Stakes of Deepfakes: The Growing Necessity of Federal Legislation to Regulate This Rapidly Evolving Technology

Google Monopoly: Searching for a Tech Competition Precedent

Law Reform Essay competition

The Bar Council's Law Reform Essay Competition is aimed at developing and fostering an interest in law reform. Students and pupils are invited to submit essays making the case to reform English, Welsh and European law.

The Law Reform Essay Competition 2024 will be opening in early summer. Please check this page for details.

The competition prizes are available in the following categories:

• The winner: £4,000, and their essay published on Counsel magazine's website
• Runner-up: £2,500 
• Best GDL entry: £1,500
• Runner-up GDL entry: £1,000
• Highly commended award: 2 x £500

We hope that the prize money will be used to contribute to the legal education or legal career of the prize winners.

In addition, all prize winners will be invited to meet members of the Law Reform Committee at a small reception held at a set of chambers.

Previous winners and barristers share their thoughts on the competition, and offer essay-writing tips.

• Read the essays and blogs from the 2023 winners
• Read winning entries from previous years

Writing Competition

The  Harvard Law Review  is composed of second- and third-year law students who are selected via a six-day writing competition at the end of each academic year. The Review strongly encourages all students to participate in the writing competition, which consists of two parts:

• Subcite: this portion, worth 50% of the competition score, requires students to perform a technical and substantive edit of an excerpt from an unpublished article
• Case Comment : this portion, also worth 50%, requires students to describe and analyze a recent case

The competition uses a closed universe of materials provided to all competition-takers; no additional outside research of any kind is allowed or required. The use of any form of Artificial Intelligence during the competition is also strictly prohibited.

Based on the competition, fifty-four second-year students are invited to join the Review each year, including:

• Twenty selected based solely on competition scores
• Seven (one from each 1L section) selected based on an equally weighted combination of competition scores and first-year grades
• Three (from any section) selected based on an equally weighted combination of competition scores and first-year grades
• Twenty-four selected through an anonymous holistic review (see below for details)

The  Review  is committed to a diverse and inclusive membership and encourages all students to participate in the writing competition. Harvard Law School students who are interested in joining the  Review  must write the competition at the end of their first year, even if they plan to take time off during law school or are pursuing a joint degree and plan to spend time at another graduate school.

Timeline & Resources

The 2024 Competition will take place from Sunday, May 12 to Saturday, May 18 . Writing competition tips and Q&A sessions will be held in early and mid-April.

Registration will open in April 2024. We expect to invite editors to join Volume 139 over the course of several days in late July. Orientation for new editors is scheduled for the week of July 22nd and will take place remotely. Volume 139 will resume a past practice of an in-person Orientation for half a day near the start of the Fall 2024 Semester. Editors are expected to be fully available during this time. In August, editors will have Law Review assignments, but these assignments can be completed simultaneously with other commitments (internships, events, travel, etc.).

For more information about the competition, the following resources are available:

• The 2024 Application and Information Packet . The application information packet is designed to provide some specific guidance about approaching the case comment and subcite portions of the competition. Please note that the sample competition submissions included in the packet are merely representative and are by no means definitive examples.
• Tips Session and Q&A. Video of our April 1, 2024 writing competition tips session and our April 11, 2024 subcite Q & A session is available on our YouTube channel. The. This questions and answers document summarizes the Q&A portion of the April 13, 2023 session.
• Factsheet: This document responds to common questions and concerns we have heard.
• Sample Schedules: This includes a variety of writing competition schedules used by current editors.
• FAQ on Accommodations . See below for more information on disabilities and accommodations.

Competition & Membership Policies

Holistic consideration.

Applicants will have the opportunity to convey aspects of their identity which have led to the development of character qualities or unique abilities that can contribute to the Law Review , including but not limited to their racial or ethnic identity, disability status, gender identity, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status. Applicants can do so by submitting an additional expository statement.  Statements will be considered by the Selection Committee only after grading of the competition has been completed. Statements will remain anonymous and will not be evaluated for quality of writing or editing, nor will they be assigned a numerical score.

Applicants are welcome to draft their expository statements before the competition week begins, and the prompt for the 200-word statement is as follows:

“You are strongly encouraged to use the space below to submit a typed expository statement of no more than 200 words. This statement may identify and describe aspects of your identity which have impacted your development of certain character qualities or unique abilities that can serve as an asset to the Law Review and are not fully captured by the categories on the previous page, including, but not limited to, racial or ethnic identity, socioeconomic background, disability (physical, intellectual, cognitive/ neurological, psychiatric, sensory, developmental, or other), gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, country of origin or international status, religious identity or expression, undergraduate institution(s), age, academic or career trajectory prior to law school, military status, cultural background, or parental/caretaker status. Additionally or alternatively, you may use this statement to identify and describe areas of academic or scholarly interest, career goals, or any other element of your identity that you would bring to your work on the Law Review .

Statements will be considered only after grading of the subcite and case comment sections of the competition has been completed. Statements will not be evaluated for quality of writing or editing, nor will they be assigned a numerical score. No applicant will be penalized in any way for not submitting an optional statement, and all optional statements are completely confidential.”

Deferral & Leave

Harvard Law Review will invite students to join Vol. 139 in mid-July. Students invited to join Vol. 138 who are taking a full-year leave of absence from HLS will be allowed to defer their membership in Law Review for the year. They may then join the Law Review as members of Vol. 140 in fall 2025 and serve as editors for two years. Editors typically serve for two full academic years to ensure ample time for training, acclimation to their roles on the Review , and opportunities to make collective decisions about our work.

Students invited to join Vol. 139 who are taking a fall-semester leave of absence from HLS are encouraged to still join as editors with Vol. 139. If joining with Vol. 139, editors will be expected to complete Law Review work during the fall, even though they are on leave from HLS. They will then serve as editors for two years. Alternatively, students taking a one-semester leave may wait to join until fall of the following year (fall 2025); in that case, they will have no Law Review obligations during the 2024-2025 academic year and will participate as Law Review editors for a single year.

Transfer Students

Prospective transfer students may take the competition at the same time as Harvard Law School 1Ls. Prospective transfer students are selected on the same anonymous grading basis as Harvard 1Ls and are eligible for 44 of the spots on the Review (in other words, all spots besides the 10 allotted to Harvard 1Ls for whom first-year grades play a role). Prospective transfer students may submit an anonymized, unofficial transcript when their 1L grades are released if they would like their grades to be considered in the Law Review ’s holistic review process. The Review ’s membership decisions do not affect the admissions decisions of Harvard Law School.

Recognizing that the competition schedule poses unique challenges to prospective transfer applicants, the Review also allows transfer students to take the competition at the end of their 2L year. Up to four spots are available for such students. However, no student may attempt the competition more than once, and this option is only available to transfer students who did not previously take the competition. Like prospective transfer students, rising third-year students may submit their grades, but they will not be eligible for the 10 slots that incorporate first-year grades.

Prospective 1L transfer students should email [email protected] for information about registering.

SJD Students

SJD students at Harvard Law School may serve as editors of the Law Review . To join, SJDs take the same writing competition as JD students and are eligible for 44 of the editorial positions (all spots besides those allotted to JD 1Ls for whom first-year grades play a role). SJDs should take the competition only if they are certain they have at least two years remaining in their program of study. Additionally, as with all candidates, SJDs are permitted to participate in the writing competition only once.

Disabilities & Accommodations

The Harvard Law Review is firmly committed to providing accommodations for students with disabilities and handles requests on a case-by-case basis. The Law Review is an independent entity and thus has its own accommodations system separate from Harvard Law School’s Dean of Students Office.

Accommodations requests can be submitted between Monday, March 11th and Friday, April 12th and will be processed on a rolling basis. Students are strongly encouraged to submit their accommodation requests as soon as possible even if they are not yet certain they will take the competition. Please see our answers to FAQ on accommodations to learn more about what documentation is needed.

The Law Review strives to keep information regarding disabilities and accommodations as confidential as possible. Nothing about your accommodations application or your receipt of accommodations will be part of the Competition entry that is considered in the selection process. All Competition grading is doubly anonymized. Jennifer Heath, a non-student HLR staff member manages the logistics related to our accommodations process, and accommodations recommendations to the Law Review are made by our testing consultant, Dr. Loring Brinckerhoff.

Essay  COMPETITION

2024 global essay prize, registrations are now open all essayists must register  here  before friday 31 may, 2024.

The John Locke Institute encourages young people to cultivate the characteristics that turn good students into great writers: independent thought, depth of knowledge, clear reasoning, critical analysis and persuasive style. Our Essay Competition invites students to explore a wide range of challenging and interesting questions beyond the confines of the school curriculum.

Entering an essay in our competition can build knowledge, and refine skills of argumentation. It also gives students the chance to have their work assessed by experts. All of our essay prizes are judged by a panel of senior academics drawn from leading universities including Oxford and Princeton, under the leadership of the Chairman of Examiners, former Cambridge philosopher, Dr Jamie Whyte.

The judges will choose their favourite essay from each of seven subject categories - Philosophy, Politics, Economics, History, Psychology, Theology and Law - and then select the winner of the Grand Prize for the best entry in any subject. There is also a separate prize awarded for the best essay in the junior category, for under 15s.

Q1. Do we have any good reasons to trust our moral intuition?

Q2. Do girls have a (moral) right to compete in sporting contests that exclude boys?

Q3. Should I be held responsible for what I believe?

Q1. Is there such a thing as too much democracy?

Q2. Is peace in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip possible?

Q3. When is compliance complicity?

Q1. What is the optimal global population?  

Q2. Accurate news reporting is a public good. Does it follow that news agencies should be funded from taxation?

Q3. Do successful business people benefit others when making their money, when spending it, both, or neither?

Q1. Why was sustained economic growth so rare before the later 18th century and why did this change?

Q2. Has music ever significantly changed the course of history?

Q3. Why do civilisations collapse? Is our civilisation in danger?

Q1. When, if ever, should a company be permitted to refuse to do business with a person because of that person’s public statements?

Q2. In the last five years British police have arrested several thousand people for things they posted on social media. Is the UK becoming a police state?

Q3. Your parents say that 11pm is your bedtime. But they don’t punish you if you don’t go to bed by 11pm. Is 11pm really your bedtime?

Q1. According to a study by researchers at four British universities, for each 15-point increase in IQ, the likelihood of getting married increases by around 35% for a man but decreases by around 58% for a woman. Why?

In the original version of this question we misstated a statistic. This was caused by reproducing an error that appeared in several media summaries of the study. We are grateful to one of our contestants, Xinyi Zhang, who helped us to see (with humility and courtesy) why we should take more care to check our sources. We corrected the text on 4 April. Happily, the correction does not in any way alter the thrust of the question.

Q2. There is an unprecedented epidemic of depression and anxiety among young people. Can we fix this? How?

Q3. What is the difference between a psychiatric illness and a character flaw?

Q1. “I am not religious, but I am spiritual.” What could the speaker mean by “spiritual”?

Q2. Is it reasonable to thank God for protection from some natural harm if He is responsible for causing the harm?

Q3. Does God reward those who believe in him? If so, why?

JUNIOR prize

Q1. Does winning a free and fair election automatically confer a mandate for governing?

Q2. Has the anti-racism movement reduced racism?

Q3. Is there life after death?

Q4. How did it happen that governments came to own and run most high schools, while leaving food production to private enterprise? 

Q5. When will advancing technology make most of us unemployable? What should we do about this?

Q6. Should we trust fourteen-year-olds to make decisions about their own bodies? 

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS & FURTHER DETAILS

Please read the following carefully.

Entry to the John Locke Institute Essay Competition 2024 is open to students from any country.

Registration  

Only candidates who registered before the registration deadline of Friday, 31 May 2024 may enter this year's competition. To register, click here .  

All entries must be submitted by 11.59 pm BST on  the submission deadline: Sunday, 30 June 2024 .  Candidates must be eighteen years old, or younger, on that date. (Candidates for the Junior Prize must be fourteen years old, or younger, on that date.)

Entry is free.

Each essay must address only one of the questions in your chosen subject category, and must not exceed 2000 words (not counting diagrams, tables of data, endnotes, bibliography or authorship declaration). 

The filename of your pdf must be in this format: FirstName-LastName-Category-QuestionNumber.pdf; so, for instance, Alexander Popham would submit his answer to question 2 in the Psychology category with the following file name:

Alexander-Popham-Psychology-2.pdf

Essays with filenames which are not in this format will be rejected.

The candidate's name should NOT appear within the document itself. 

Candidates should NOT add footnotes. They may, however, add endnotes and/or a Bibliography that is clearly titled as such.

Each candidate will be required to provide the email address of an academic referee who is familiar with the candidate's written academic work. This should be a school teacher, if possible, or another responsible adult who is not a relation of the candidate. The John Locke Institute will email referees to verify that the essays submitted are indeed the original work of the candidates.

Submissions may be made as soon as registration opens in April. We recommend that you submit your essay well in advance of th e deadline to avoid any last-minute complications.

Acceptance of your essay depends on your granting us permission to use your data for the purposes of receiving and processing your entry as well as communicating with you about the Awards Ceremony Dinner, the academic conference, and other events and programmes of the John Locke Institute and its associated entities.  

Late entries

If for any reason you miss the 30 June deadline you will have an opportunity to make a late entry, under two conditions:

a) A late entry fee of 20.00 USD must be paid by credit card within twenty-four hours of the original deadline; and

b) Your essay must be submitted  before 11.59 pm BST on Wednesday, 10 July 2024.

To pay for late entry, a registrant need only log into his or her account, select the relevant option and provide the requested payment information.

Our grading system is proprietary. Essayists may be asked to discuss their entry with a member of the John Locke Institute’s faculty. We use various means to identify plagiarism, contract cheating, the use of AI and other forms of fraud . Our determinations in all such matters are final.

Essays will be judged on knowledge and understanding of the relevant material, the competent use of evidence, quality of argumentation, originality, structure, writing style and persuasive force. The very best essays are likely to be those which would be capable of changing somebody's mind. Essays which ignore or fail to address the strongest objections and counter-arguments are unlikely to be successful .

Candidates are advised to answer the question as precisely and directly as possible.

The writers of the best essays will receive a commendation and be shortlisted for a prize. Writers of shortlisted essays will be notified by 11.59 pm BST on Wednesday, 31 July. They will also be invited to London for an invitation-only academic conference and awards dinner in September, where the prize-winners will be announced. Unlike the competition itself, the academic conference and awards dinner are not free. Please be aware that n obody is required to attend either the academic conference or the prize ceremony. You can win a prize without travelling to London.

All short-listed candidates, including prize-winners, will be able to download eCertificates that acknowledge their achievement. If you win First, Second or Third Prize, and you travel to London for the ceremony, you will receive a signed certificate. 

There is a prize for the best essay in each category. The prize for each winner of a subject category, and the winner of the Junior category, is a scholarship worth US$2000 towards the cost of attending any John Locke Institute programme, and the essays will be published on the Institute's website. Prize-giving ceremonies will take place in London, at which winners and runners-up will be able to meet some of the judges and other faculty members of the John Locke Institute. Family, friends, and teachers are also welcome.

The candidate who submits the best essay overall will be awarded an honorary John Locke Institute Junior Fellowship, which comes with a US$10,000 scholarship to attend one or more of our summer schools and/or visiting scholars programmes. 

The judges' decisions are final, and no correspondence will be entered into.

R egistration opens: 1 April, 2024.

Registration deadline: 31 May, 2024. (Registration is required by this date for subsequent submission.)

Submission deadline: 30 June, 2024.

Late entry deadline: 10 July, 2024. (Late entries are subject to a 20.00 USD charge, payable by 1 July.)

Notification of short-listed essayists: 31 July, 2024.

Academic conference: 20 - 22 September, 2024.

Awards dinner: 21 September, 2024.

Any queries regarding the essay competition should be sent to [email protected] . Please be aware that, due to the large volume of correspondence we receive, we cannot guarantee to answer every query. In particular, regrettably, we are unable to respond to questions whose answers can be found on our website.

If you would like to receive helpful tips  from our examiners about what makes for a winning essay or reminders of upcoming key dates for the 2024  essay competition, please provide your email here to be added to our contact list. .

Thanks for subscribing!

The John Locke Institute's Global Essay Prize is acknowledged as the world's most prestigious essay competition. 

We welcome tens of thousands of submissions from ambitious students in more than 150 countries, and our examiners - including distinguished philosophers, political scientists, economists, historians, psychologists, theologians, and legal scholars - read and carefully assess every entry. 

I encourage you to register for this competition, not only for the hope of winning a prize or commendation, and not only for the chance to join the very best contestants at our academic conference and gala ceremony in London, but equally for the opportunity to engage in the serious scholarly enterprise of researching, reflecting on, writing about, and editing an answer to one of the important and provocative questions in this year's Global Essay Prize. 

We believe that the skills you will acquire in the process will make you a better thinker and a more effective advocate for the ideas that matter most to you.

I hope to see you in September!

Best wishes,

Jamie Whyte, Ph.D. (C ANTAB ) 

Chairman of Examiners

Q. I missed the registration deadline. May I still register or submit an essay?

A. No. Only candidates who registered before 31 May will be able to submit an essay. 

Q. Are footnote s, endnotes, a bibliography or references counted towards the word limit?

A. No. Only the body of the essay is counted. 

Q. Are in-text citations counted towards the word limit? ​

A. If you are using an in-text based referencing format, such as APA, your in-text citations are included in the word limit.

Q. Is it necessary to include foo tnotes or endnotes in an essay? ​

A. You  may not  include footnotes, but you may include in-text citations or endnotes. You should give your sources of any factual claims you make, and you should ackn owledge any other authors on whom you rely.​

Q. I am interested in a question that seems ambiguous. How should I interpret it?

A. You may interpret a question as you deem appropriate, clarifying your interpretation if necessary. Having done so, you must answer the question as directly as possible.

Q. How strict are  the age eligibility criteria?

A. Only students whose nineteenth birthday falls after 30 June 2024 will be eligible for a prize or a commendation. In the case of the Junior category, only students whose fifteenth birthday falls after 30 June 2024 will be eligible for a prize or a commendation. 

Q. May I submit more than one essay?

A. Yes, you may submit as many essays as you please in any or all categories.

Q. If I am eligible to compete in the Junior category, may I also (or instead) compete in another category?

A. Yes, you may.

Q. May I team up with someone else to write an essay?  

A. No. Each submitted essay must be entirely the work of a single individual.

Q. May I use AI, such as ChatGPT or the like, in writing my essay?

A. All essays will be checked for the use of AI. If we find that any content is generated by AI, your essay will be disqualified. We will also ask you, upon submission of your essay, whether you used AI for  any  purpose related to the writing of your essay, and if so, you will be required to provide details. In that case, if, in our judgement, you have not provided full and accurate details of your use of AI, your essay will be disqualified. 

Since any use of AI (that does not result in disqualification) can only negatively affect our assessment of your work relative to that of work that is done without using AI, your safest course of action is simply not to use it at all. If, however, you choose to use it for any purpose, we reserve the right to make relevant judgements on a case-by-case basis and we will not enter into any correspondence. 

Q. May I have someone else edit, or otherwise help me with, my essay?

A. You may of course discuss your essay with others, and it is perfectly acceptable for them to offer general advice and point out errors or weaknesses in your writing or content, leaving you to address them.

However, no part of your essay may be written by anyone else. This means that you must edit your own work and that while a proofreader may point out errors, you as the essayist must be the one to correct them. 

Q. Do I have to attend the awards ceremony to win a prize? ​

A. Nobody is required to attend the prize ceremony. You can win a prize without travelling to London. But if we invite you to London it is because your essay was good enough - in the opinion of the First Round judges - to be at least a contender for First, Second or Third Prize. Normally the Second Round judges will agree that the short-listed essays are worth at least a commendation.

Q. Is there an entry fee?

A. No. There is no charge to enter our global essay competition unless you submit your essay after the normal deadline, in which case there is a fee of 20.00 USD .

Q. Can I receive a certificate for my participation in your essay competition if I wasn't shortlisted? 

A. No. Certificates are awarded only for shortlisted essays. Short-listed contestants who attend the award ceremony in London will receive a paper certificate. If you cannot travel to London, you will be able to download your eCertificate.

Q. Can I receive feedba ck on my essay? 

A. We would love to be able to give individual feedback on essays but, unfortunately, we receive too many entries to be able to comment on particular essays.

Q. The deadline for publishing the names of short-listed essayists has passed but I did not receive an email to tell me whether I was short-listed.

A. Log into your account and check "Shortlist Status" for (each of) your essay(s).

Q. Why isn't the awards ceremony in Oxford this year?

A. Last year, many shortlisted finalists who applied to join our invitation-only academic conference missed the opportunity because of capacity constraints at Oxford's largest venues. This year, the conference will be held in central London and the gala awards dinner will take place in an iconic London ballroom. 

TECHNICAL FAQ s

Q. The system will not accept my essay. I have checked the filename and it has the correct format. What should I do?  

A. You have almost certainly added a space before or after one of your names in your profile. Edit it accordingly and try to submit again.

Q. The profile page shows my birth date to be wrong by a day, even after I edit it. What should I do?

A. Ignore it. The date that you typed has been correctly input to our database. ​ ​

Q. How can I be sure that my registration for the essay competition was successful? Will I receive a confirmation email?

A. You will not receive a confirmation email. Rather, you can at any time log in to the account that you created and see that your registration details are present and correct.

TROUBLESHOOTING YOUR SUBMISSION

If you are unable to submit your essay to the John Locke Institute’s global essay competition, your problem is almost certainly one of the following.

If so, please proceed as indicated.

1) PROBLEM: I receive the ‘registrations are now closed’ message when I enter my email and verification code. SOLUTION. You did not register for the essay competition and create your account. If you think you did, you probably only provided us with your email to receive updates from us about the competition or otherwise. You may not enter the competition this year.

2) PROBLEM I do not receive a login code after I enter my email to enter my account. SOLUTION. Enter your email address again, checking that you do so correctly. If this fails, restart your browser using an incognito window; clear your cache, and try again. Wait for a few minutes for the code. If this still fails, restart your machine and try one more time. If this still fails, send an email to [email protected] with “No verification code – [your name]” in the subject line.

SUBMITTING AN ESSAY

3) PROBLEM: The filename of my essay is in the correct format but it is rejected. SOLUTION: Use “Edit Profile” to check that you did not add a space before or after either of your names. If you did, delete it. Whether you did or did not, try again to submit your essay. If submission fails again, email [email protected] with “Filename format – [your name]” in the subject line.

4) PROBLEM: When trying to view my submitted essay, a .txt file is downloaded – not the .pdf file that I submitted. SOLUTION: Delete the essay. Logout of your account; log back in, and resubmit. If resubmission fails, email [email protected] with “File extension problem – [your name]” in the subject line.

5) PROBLEM: When I try to submit, the submission form just reloads without giving me an error message. SOLUTION. Log out of your account. Open a new browser; clear the cache; log back in, and resubmit. If resubmission fails, email [email protected] with “Submission form problem – [your name]” in the subject line.

6) PROBLEM: I receive an “Unexpected Error” when trying to submit. SOLUTION. Logout of your account; log back in, and resubmit. If this resubmission fails, email [email protected] with “Unexpected error – [your name]” in thesubject line. Your email must tell us e xactly where in the submission process you received this error.

7) PROBLEM: I have a problem with submitting and it is not addressed above on this list. SOLUTION: Restart your machine. Clear your browser’s cache. Try to submit again. If this fails, email [email protected] with “Unlisted problem – [your name]” in the subject line. Your email must tell us exactly the nature of your problem with relevant screen caps.

READ THIS BEFORE YOU EMAIL US.

Do not email us before you have tried the specified solutions to your problem.

Do not email us more than once about a single problem. We will respond to your email within 72 hours. Only if you have not heard from us in that time may you contact us again to ask for an update.

If you email us regarding a problem, you must include relevant screen-shots and information on both your operating system and your browser. You must also declare that you have tried the solutions presented above and had a good connection to the internet when you did so.

If you have tried the relevant solution to your problem outlined above, have emailed us, and are still unable to submit before the 30 June deadline on account of any fault of the John Locke Institute or our systems, please do not worry: we will have a way to accept your essay in that case. However, if there is no fault on our side, we will not accept your essay if it is not submitted on time – whatever your reason: we will not make exceptions for IT issues for which we are not responsible.

We reserve the right to disqualify the entries of essayists who do not follow all provided instructions, including those concerning technical matters.

Law Essay Competitions

From learnmore.

• 1.1 The Andrew Lockley Public Law Essay Competition
• 1.2 vLex International Law & Technology Writing Competition
• 1.3 Golding Essay Prize
• 1.4 Times Law Awards
• 1.5 The Graham Turnbull Memorial International Human Rights Essay Competition
• 1.6 Bar Council Law Reform Essay
• 1.7 JLD Essay Competition
• 1.8 UKELA Andrew Lees Prize
• 1.9 ARDL Marion Simmons QC Essay Competition
• 1.10 FIDE Essay Prize
• 1.11 Future Legal Mind Award
• 1.12 Property Bar Association Essay Competition
• 1.13 SCL Student Essay Prize
• 1.14 Shamnad Basheer Essay Competition on Intellectual Property Law
• 1.15 UK Centre for Animal Law Essay Competition
• 1.16 The Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law Essay Competition
• 1.17 Littleton Chambers Sports Law Essay Competition
• 1.18 Human Rights Essay Award
• 1.19 FSLA Essay Competition
• 1.20 ITSA Essay Competition

Feeling like a winner?

There are lots of opportunities to try out your writing expertise throughout the year...sometimes for money (oh and prestige and worldwide fame of course...).

The Andrew Lockley Public Law Essay Competition

Irwin Mitchell run this competition for aspiring public law and human rights solicitors and it is a fantastic opportunity to get your name out there, win a £250 Blackwell's gift card and to develop your legal writing skills.

It is open to law students, graduates, paralegals and trainee solicitors.

Entrants are asked to submit an essay of no more than 1500 words on the following topic:

What key factors should the courts consider and give most weight to when balancing the rights to freedom of expression and assembly of protestors with disruption to other members of the public?

Deadline is: 31st October 2023. Find full details of the competition, including the rules via the Irwin Mitchell website .

vLex International Law & Technology Writing Competition

This annual competition (it has been running since 2018) centres around three new themes each year. For 2024 these are:

• Immigration
• Large language models
• Industrial action

As in previous years, the winner receives a whopping £1500, with additional prizes for runners-up.

Have a look at the vLex Writing Competition page to see the rules, Ts &Cs and the work of winners from the previous competitions . You can also get inspiration on the set themes.

Max number of words is 1000. Deadline is 1st December 2023.

Golding Essay Prize

The Competition Law Association runs an annual competition for any student, trainee solicitor, pupil barrister or trainee patent and trade mark attorney. First prize is £1000.

The 2024 Essay Prize title asked for entrants to address the following title:

As the importance of renewable energy increases, will patents continue to play a central role in protecting those rights or will renewable companies rely on trade secrets and confidential information only?

Look at the competition website for inspiration from previous winning essays. The rules and background for this year's competition can be accessed via the CLA website .

Times Law Awards

The biggest of these law essay competition is The Times Law Award. Last year's competition deadline was mid-Jan and prizes were substantial, with £3,500 for the winner and £2,500 and £1,500 for second and third place. Not bad for a 1000 word essay on a given topic!

Last year's title was:

Should states and private parties be entitled to recover reparations from aggressor states, and if so, how??

You can see the prize-winning essays (1st, 2nd, 3rd and 3 runners-up going all the way back to 1995) on the One Essex Court/Times Law Award website .

We'll update this as soon as this year's competition is announced.

We're very proud of the incredible number of City students and alumni who have performed so well in this competition over the years. We have seen the following successes from them:

GDL student Charlie Colenutt was runner-up in 2020 * BPTC student William Beddows was runner-up in 2019 * BPTC student Katie Ratcliffe (3rd) in 2018 * GDL student Genevieve Woods (1st) in 2017 * Joshua Brown (1st) and Gavin Dingley (2nd) in 2016 * BPTC students George White (1st) and Lara Hassell (3rd) (Lara completed the GDL at City in the previous year) and BPTC alumnus James Beeton (2nd) in 2014 * GDL students Andrew Lomas (1st) and Lara Hassell (2nd) in 2013 * GDL and BPTC alumni James Potts (1st) and GDL student Thomas Coates (2nd) in 2012 * GDL student Anthony Pavlovich (1st) in 2011 * GDL student Anita Davies (1st) in 2010. Anita's winning essay was described by Jack Straw as "an engaging, erudite piece of prose" * GDL student Amy Rogers (1st) in 2006 * GDL student Sarah Love (joint 1st) in 2005 * BVC student James Brilliant (1st) in 2004 * GDL student Mathew Guillick (1st) in 2002 *

The Graham Turnbull Memorial International Human Rights Essay Competition

An annual competition named after Graham Turnbull, an English solicitor who did much to promote respect for human rights. Graham was killed in 1997, working as a human rights monitor on the United Nations Human Rights Mission in Rwanda.

Until 2023, the competition was administered by the Law Society but is now managed by the Graham Turnbull Memorial Fund independently.

The competition is open to law students, trainee solicitors, pupil barristers and all solicitors/barristers within 3 years of admission/call. It asked for essays of no more than 2000 words in length and awards the winner of this prestigious award, £500. The title for the 2023 competition is:

What are the human rights implications of the failure of a state to take action to prevent global temperature rises which threaten the health or lives of their citizens?

Previous winners include Niall Coghlan (2013 competition) and Nick Jones (2019 competition), who were both on the GDL programme at City. You can read the winning entries all the way back to 2010 on the Law Society page for inspiration in the meantime...

Entries should be sent to [email protected] prior to the deadline - 5pm on the 20th October 2023. I've put the full rules on the Lawbore blog for you.

Bar Council Law Reform Essay

Sponsored by the Bar Council Scholarship Trust, this competition is open to students and pupils and requires entrants to write a piece of less than 3000 words proposing the case for a law reform which is desirable, practical and useful. Top prize is £4000 which could come in very handy for funding some part of your legal education.

City GDL students have won in previous years: Daisy Ricketts (2011) and Calum Docherty (2010) were both successful. Calum proposed the reform of copyright law in Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: Reforming Fair Dealing in English Copyright Law and Daisy with Strengthening the Rule of Law: Reforming the Scope on Parliamentary Privilege . In 2012 City student Mek Mesfin was runner-up in the CPE category and in 2013 Ross Beaton , a City GDL alumni won the overall prize. You can see all previous winners and read their essays via the Bar Council website .

Phoebe Whitlock won in the GDL category for 2016's competition with an entry entitled Rivalling Silicon Valley: The case for the reform of Software Patents. Take a look at the CityNews story about this. For the 2017 competition, GDL student Clarissa Wigoder won first prize with her essay Spare the rod: Why the law on corporal punishment needs to be reformed, and Daniel Fox was named runner-up with his piece: I hate being idle: Asylum seekers and the right to work. In 2020 BPTC alumnus Oliver Brewis won for his piece: Unravelling the Sleeve of Care: Fair Remuneration for Employer-contracted Sleep . In 2021, GDL student Annika Weis won with her entry: Licence to sanction - Stopping Environmental Crimes through UK Magnitsky legislation . Last year, GDL student Raphael Marshall was first runner-up in the competition.

Take a look at their entries (and other winners back to 2018) via the Bar Council website . The competition information usually comes out in April and the deadline for entries for 2023 is 23rd October at 5pm.

JLD Essay Competition

Open to its members, the Junior Lawyers Network of the Law Society , have an annual competition for those registered with the Solicitors Regulation Authority. This includes LPC students and those qualified and working as paralegals. The deadline is normally around the end of November each year and they generally ask for essays of no more than 2000 words. I can't currently find any information about this year's competition, so have fired off an email to the organisation. Update soon!

Essay titles from previous years include:

Is there a role for the legal profession in environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations?

What’s in a name? Is the title of solicitor still relevant??

How will the rule of law be affected by advances in legal technology?

UKELA Andrew Lees Prize

Named for a former Friends of the Earth Campaign Director (Andrew Lees, a leading environmental campaigner who died unexpectedly in 1994) this prize has been going many years. You can view previous winners on the site and the winner normally receives support for travel and attendance at the UKELA annual conference as well as see your work published in their members' journal.

The deadline for submissions is usually around early April of each year. The 2024 competition is likely to launch in January 2024.

Find out more about the competition and associated rules on the UKELA website , as well as essay winners from past years.

The 2023 competition pivoted around the following statement: 'If we are to meet the challenges of the climate and nature crises, it is essential to strengthen current approaches to environmental governance. Discuss'. You can read the winning entry via the UKELA website.

ARDL Marion Simmons QC Essay Competition

Annual essay competition from the Association of Regulatory and Disciplinary Lawyers . Students are asked to write no more than 1500 words on a topic. The competition asks applicants to submit an essay on a regulatory law or disciplinary law topic of their choice.

First prize winner takes home £2000, second prize winner £1000 and third prize £500. Details of the competition are normally released in February, with a deadline for submission in late April.

Entry is open to all undergraduate and postgraduate students in the UK and a wide range of early practitioners too. You can see full eligibility details via the competition website .

FIDE Essay Prize

The UK Association for European Law also run an essay competition, with the winner securing a bursary to attend the biennial FIDE CONGRESS Conference, which usually takes place in May.

Students are generally asked to write no more than 2000 words (including footnotes) on the topic provided.

Submissions are judged by a panel from the UKAEL committee, who will award the winner registration at the conference in addition to £600 towards accommodation and travel. The winner of this prize in 2018 was William Spence, GDL student at City. In 2014 another City student (BPTC) took the prize, Niall Coghlan. You can read both their essays via the UKAEL website. Niall has had a great year for developing his European Law expertise - he was also part of the team that won the European Human Rights Moot in Strasbourg.

Sadly the competition has been on pause in recent years and will likely not run in 2024.

Future Legal Mind Award

Launched in 2014 by the National Accident Helpline the winner of this competition will receive £1500 towards their career development, as well as gain access to mentoring and a work experience placement.

There are separate awards for undergraduates and postgraduates. The last time the competition ran was 2022. You can find out more about the competition and see the winning entries via the National Accident Helpline competition website . The organisers have confirmed that it will run again in 2024.

The 2015 winner in the postgraduate category was Lukas Hamilton-Eddy (City GDL student). In 2016 the prize was again won by a City GDL student, Tom Phillips. He wowed judges with his essay on the future of legal services for firms and consumers. Another City student, Pavlos Artemios Xagoraris also made the finalists stage. Pavlos is in the first year of his Graduate Entry LLB. Katherine Strange (GDL) was a finalist in 2017. We're overdue another City winner!

Property Bar Association Essay Competition

This competition was launched in November 2015 and asks students each year to write a 1000-word essay, with the winner taking home £1000, a copy of Megarry & Wade AND their essay published in the Estates Gazette .

The question for 2023 was Has equity been taken too far in enforcing informal promises of interests in land?

The question is normally released in November each year and the essay deadline in early January.

Arabella Adams (City GDL) won the 2017 competition and Elijah Granet (City GDL) won first prize in the 2020 competition .

SCL Student Essay Prize

The Society for Computers and Law annual essay competition asks entrants to write a maximum of 2000 words in order to be in with a chance of winning a free place at the annual SCL Conference, publication of your essay in the SCL Computers and Law magazine and £300. The competition honours the memory of the amazing Sir Henry Brooke, a former President of SCL.

The 2021 competition (deadline was in November of that year) asked students to address the following question in fewer than 2500 words:

There is increasing concern that machine learning tools embed bias in their operations and outputs. To what extent does the law currently provide adequate protection from or adequate redress in respect of any such discrimination?

We've contacted the SCL to find out if this competition will run in 2024.

Shamnad Basheer Essay Competition on Intellectual Property Law

This competition was launched in 2020 by SpicyIP , in honour of their founder Professor Shamnad Basheer. Excitingly this competition asks for submissions on anything related to intellectual property rights – the more creative the better. The call generally comes out in May of each year.

The word limit for submissions is 5,000 words (inclusive of footnotes) and the deadline for submissions is June 30, 2020 (23:59 IST).

All submissions and any queries should be e-mailed to [email protected].

The competition is open to students currently enrolled in any LLB program (or its equivalent – meaning students enrolled in J.D. programs can take part) across the world.

We are awaiting information on the 4th annual essay competition but you can see the winners of the 2022 competition and their essays via the SpicyIP website .

UK Centre for Animal Law Essay Competition

The details of the 2024 competition will be released in November 2023.

Last year's competition title was:

Can the UK’s hunting legislation be reformed to ensure practical protection for UK wildlife? .

The inaugral competition was won by City GDL and BVS student Sam Groom. You can see a fantastic video of Sam speaking about the competition on the competition website.

First prize is a £150 book voucher and the chance to get your essay published in the UK Journal of Animal Law.

The Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law Essay Competition

The organisers state that the aim of their competition is to:

...encourage students to explore the fascinating questions that animals rights raise, and to discuss these questions in an original piece of writing that may inspire them to engage further with the topic in the future.

No information regarding the 2024 competition yet but in 2023 the question was as follows:

Richard Ryder once wrote: “Since Darwin, scientists have agreed that there is no ‘magical’ essential difference between human and other animals, biologically-speaking. Why then do we make an almost total distinction morally?” Assuming that is correct, how does this affect the arguments for and against animal rights laws?

The winning essay in the university category receives £750. You can read winning essays from the previous years of the competition via the competition website .

Littleton Chambers Sports Law Essay Competition

This annual competition from Littleton Chambers offers young lawyers the chance to get their ideas out to the wider sporting community and various monetary prizes, plus a sports law mini-pupillage. First prize is £1000, second prize £500 and third place receives £250.

The 2023 competition deadline was end of February 2023, so we anticipate a similar one for the 2024 competition. Entrants were asked to submit a piece of work between 1,500 and 2,500 words, on the following title:

Transparency has been prized as foundational to good governance in sport (see, for instance, the International Olympic Committee’s Basic Universal Principles of Good Governance, principle 2). To what extent (if at all) are sport regulators justified in using confidential procedures, such as arbitration, to deal with participant misconduct?

Until we get the info for the 2024 competition, have a look at the information on the 2023 competition pages .

Human Rights Essay Award

The Human Rights Essay Award is an annual competition (sponsored by the Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at Washington College of Law) that seeks to stimulate the production of scholarly work in international human rights law.

The Academy will grant two Awards, one for the best article in English and one for the best article in Spanish. The Award in each case will consist of:

• A full scholarship to the Program of Advanced Studies on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law for either the Diploma or Certificate of Attendance options.
• Travel expenses to and from Washington D.C. (if the competition is not virtual)
• Housing at the university dorms
• Per diem for living expenses
• The best articles may also be published in the American University International Law Review

It is open to all lawyers around the world regardless of their nationality, but participants must already have a law degree Juris Doctor, (J.D.), Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) or equivalent by the submission due date to be eligible. They must also have a demonstrated experience or interest in international human rights law.

The 2022 topic was Climate Change and Human Rights: Impacts, Responsibilities, and Opportunities and the deadline was the end of January.

We are awaiting information on the 2024 competition.

FSLA Essay Competition

The Financial Services Lawyers Association runs an annual essay competition, normally with a deadline of early October each year. First prize is a generous £1500 and a legal internship at the FCA.

The 2023 competition title is Can the risks and opportunities of AI in financial services be managed by fine-tuning existing regulation, or is a new approach required? You need to get your entries in by midnight on 6th October 2023.

Look at the FSLA website for full details/rules. Note that membership of the FSLA is free to students!

ITSA Essay Competition

Open to students members of the Inner Temple, the 2023 competition asks entrants for essays of 2500 words maximum (including refs) on the following topic:

Is the Cab Rank Rule now redundant at the self-employed Bar?

Deadline is 4pm on Monday 6th November 2023 and first prize is £150 and publication of your essay in the Inner Temple Yearbook. Look at the competition website for full rules of the competition .

Writing Competitions for Law Students: Spring Semester (Jan. - May)

• Writing Resources
• Fall Semester (Sept. - Dec.)
• Spring Semester (Jan. - May)
• Summer (June - Aug.)
• Admiralty & Maritime Law
• Affordable Housing & Community Development Law
• Alcohol Regulation
• Antitrust Law, Consumer Protection Law & Data Privacy
• Armed Forces Law & National Security Law
• Aviation & Space Law
• Business Law
• Church/State Relations, Law & Religion
• Climate Accountability & Environmental Law
• Constitutional Law
• Construction Law
• Consumer Financial Services Law
• Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure & Criminal Justice Reform
• Disability Law & Rights
• Dispute Resolution
• Employee Benefits Law & Workers' Compensation
• Entertainment Law
• Gun Violence Prevention & Gun Safety
• Health Care Compliance & Health Law
• Human Rights
• Intellectual Property Law
• International Arbitration
• International Energy Negotiation
• International Insolvency
• International Law
• International Refugee Law
• International Trade Law & Customs Law
• Labor & Employment Law
• Law & Social Inquiry
• Law & Technology
• Law Affecting FDA-regulated Industries
• Law Librarianship
• Legal Ethics
• Legal History
• Legal Issues Concerning Indigenous Peoples
• Legal Malpractice Law & Lawyers' Professional Liability
• Legal Medicine
• Legal Scholarship on Issues of Importance to the Asian Pacific American Community
• Legal Short Fiction
• Pharmacy Law
• Planning & Law
• Public Contract Law
• Real Property Law
• Regulatory & Administrative Law
• Reproductive Rights & Justice (New Student Scholarship)
• Rule of Law
• Securities Arbitration & Securities Law
• Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity Law
• Social Justice & Public Interest Law
• State & Local Government Law
• Trust & Estate Law
• Video Game Industry/Law
• Women & Law
• World Affairs
• Additional: Awards for Excellence in Legal Writing
• Additional: Opportunities for Law Students to Present Scholarly Work

Description

This page lists law student writing competitions by the deadline(s) established for each competition.

Competitions with Spring Semester (Jan. - May) Deadlines

International Law and Technology Writing Competition (annual) [note: there likely will be new "writing categories" in next year's competition]

• Deadline for "this year's" competition was: Jan 1, 2024.  Website states: "Follow vLex on social media to find out about next year's competition."

New York State Bar Association Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Section: Phil Cowan – Judith Bresler Memorial Scholarship

• Deadline for 2024 Annual Phil Cowan-Judith Bresler Memorial Scholarship Writing Competition was: January 3 , 2024.

Harvard Journal of Law and Technology (JOLT) Student Note Submission and Competition

• Deadline for submission was: January 12, 2024.

American Bar Association State and Local Government Law Section: Writing Competition (annual) [any topic of state or local government law]

• Deadline for submission was: January 15, 2024. 

John F. Burton Jr. College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers Law Student Writing Competition

• Deadline for submission was : January 15, 2024.

Louis Jackson Memorial National Student Writing Competition [employment law, labor law, employee benefits, or employment discrimination]

• Deadline to submit papers for the 2023–2024 competition was: January 16, 2024.

Rule of Law Writing Competition (annual)

• Deadline: The typical deadline for entries is January 31.

Sterne Kessler IP Law Writing Competition

• Deadline to submit entries for 2023 Competition was: January 31, 2024.

American Bar Association Standing Committee on Lawyers' Professional Liability and Long & Levit, LLP: Edward C. Mendrzycki Award: A Scholarly Writing Competition (annual) [contest encourages "scholarship and innovative research and writing in the area of legal malpractice law, professional liability insurance, and loss prevention."]

• Deadline for submission was: February 1, 2024. 

Center for Alcohol Policy National Writing Competition (annual) [state alcohol regulation]

• Deadline for submission was: February 1, 2024.

Family Law Writing Competition (annual)

• Deadline f or submission of entry forms was: February 1, 2024.   Deadline for submission of articles was: February 15, 2024 . 

Scribes Law Review Award [annual award for the best student-written article in a law review or journal]

Selma Moidel Smith Law Student Writing Competition (annual) [ writing on issues concerning women and the law]

• Deadline: " Entries are due February 1 each year."

International Refugee Law Student Writing Competition (annual)

• Deadline for submission was: February 4, 2024.

Constance Baker Motley National Student Writing Competition (annual) [papers furthering and promoting a progressive vision of the Constitution, law, and public policy]

Deadline to apply was: Monday, February 5, 2024.

Richard D. Cudahy Writing Competition on Regulatory and Administrative Law (annual)

• Deadline for submission was: February 5, 2024.

Human Rights Essay Award (annual)

• Eligibility requirements in 2024 included: "Must hold a law degree, Juris Doctor, (J.D.), Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.), or equivalent."  "Shall have a demonstrated experience or interest in international human rights law." 
• Deadline for submission in 2024 was extended to: February 7, 2024.

Hirsh Student Writing Competition in Legal Medicine (annual)

• Deadline for submission was: February 8, 2024.  In future, check this website for information about a 2025 Competition.

American Bar Association Antitrust Law Section Consumer Protection Committee: Harvey Saferstein Consumer Protection Committee Student Essay Contest

• Deadline for submission in 2023-2024 Competition was: February 10, 2024.

Law Student Intellectual Property Legal Research and Brief Writing Competition (Litigation Focused)

• Deadline to declare an intent to participate in this competition was: February 15, 2024.

New York State Bar Association Business Law Section: Annual Student Writing Competition

• Requirements stated at website above include: "All submissions become the property of the NYSBA and the Business Law Journal . By submitting an article, the student is deemed to consent to its publication, whether or not a cash prize is awarded. To enter, the student should submit an original, unpublished manuscript in Word format to David L. Glass , editor in chief, NYSBA New York Business Law Journal ( [email protected] ).  The student should include a brief biography, including law school attended, degree for which the student is a candidate, and expected year of graduation."
• Deadline:  Submissions should be made by February 15 for the Spring issue of the New York Business Law Journal . 

Virginia Journal of International Law Essay Competition  - In future, check this website for announcements of future Essay Competitions.

• Deadline for submission in 2024 Winter Essay Competition was: Friday, February 16, 2024.

Law Student Patent Claims Drafting Competition (Patent Prosecution Focused)

• Deadline to declare an intent to participate in this competition was: February 22, 2024.

American Bar Association Antitrust Law Section: Robert Pitofsky Law Student Writing Competition [antitrust law, competition policy, and consumer protection law]

• Note: " The editor of the law school publication that published the entrant’s paper must complete and submit an official 2023-2024 Entry Form." 
• Deadline for the 2023-2024 Competition was: February 23, 2024.

David S. Rosenbaum Writing Competition [a legal issue relevant to the games industry]

• Deadline was: "Submissions open Sept. 25, 2023 - Feb. 25, 2024."

John D. Greenwald Writing Competition (annual) [international trade law]

• Deadline for submission was: February 25, 2024.

American Indian Law Review National Writing Competition ["Papers will be accepted on any legal issue specifically concerning American Indians or other indigenous peoples."]

• Deadline for 2023-2024 Competition was : February 29, 2024.

Dorothy E. Roberts Public Interest Essay Competition (annual) [articles on the topic of social justice and public interest law]

• Note: "In addition, the author must include a brief grant proposal for $5,000 to support public interest work related to the essay topic."
• Deadline for submission was: February 29, 2024, via the   online submission portal .

2024 IEL Hartrick Scholar Writing Competition [any topic related to energy development]

• Deadline for submission was: March 1, 2024.  

National Native American Law Students Association Writing Competition (annual)

• Registration: "This competition is ONLY open to law students who are registered members of the National Native American Law Students Association and members of their law school NALSA Chapter."  There are separate registration instructions for those writing on an environmental law issue and those writing on a non-environmental law issue. 
• Deadline was : March 1, 2024 .

New York State Bar Association Real Property Law Section: Annual Student Writing Competition

• Deadline: "Submissions must be made by no later than 11:59 PM Eastern Time on March 1 of each year." 

Sports Lawyers Association Student Writing Competition (annual)

• Deadline for submission was: March 1, 2024.

Honorable William C. Conner Writing Competition (annual) [intellectual property law]

• Deadline for submission was: March 3, 2024.

Diane and Stephen Uhl Memorial Essay Competition for Law School Students (also referred to as: First Amendment Scholars - Law Student Essay Competition )

• Deadline for entry was: March 15, 2024.

Hager Prize [Awarded for the best writing, either student or presenter, on the ICWA [ Indian Child Welfare Act] or any legal issue concerning Native American children]

• Deadline for submission was: March 15, 2024.

Law & Social Inquiry Graduate Student Paper Competition (annual)

• Deadline for submission was: "Entries will be accepted from January 1, 2024 until March 15, 2024 ."

Trandafir Writing Competition (annual) [world affairs]

• Deadline was: " Transnational Law & Contemporary Problems must receive all essays no later than March 17, 2024."
• Deadline for submission was: March 18, 2024 .

American Bar Association Forum on Affordable Housing and Community Development Law: 2024 Affordable Housing & Community Development Law Student Legal Writing Competition

• Deadline for submission was: March 21, 2024.

2024 Prize in International Insolvency Studies [prize for "original legal research, commentary or analysis on topics of international insolvency and restructuring significance and on comparative international analysis of domestic insolvency and restructuring issues and developments"]

• Deadline for submission was: March 31, 2024.

2023-2024 Robert T. Matsui Writing Competition (annual) [a legal topic of importance to the Asian Pacific American community]

Human Rights Essay Contest (annual) [international human rights law]

• Note: " The International Law Section sponsors this annual essay contest as part of its commitment to provide information and guidance on international human rights issues to Texas lawyers and law students. The contest is open to any law student with a personal or essay nexus to Texas (e.g. Texas law school, Texas resident, topic addressing Texas, etc.)."
• Deadline for submission was: April 1, 2024.

Berkeley Technology Law Journal 2024 Writing Competition

• Deadline for submission was: April 2, 2024 .

UNIDROIT Essay Competition

• Deadline for submission was: April 2, 202 4 .

American Bar Association Section of Family Law: Howard C. Schwab Memorial Essay Contest (annual) [family law]

• Deadline for submission of entry forms: " Your completed entry form must be received by 5:00pm CT Friday, April 5, 2024, so we may assign you a number. No submissions after 5:00pm CT April 5, 2024 will be accepted. "   Deadline for submission of entries: "All entries must be e-mailed on or before 5:00 pm CT Friday, April 19, 2024."

Church, State & Society Writing Competition (annual) [topics related to church-state relations, law and religion, and religious liberty]

• Deadline for submission was: April 12, 2024.

Erik Olin Wright Prize (annual) [social justice]

• Requirements: Student's paper + " A nominating letter from a faculty member familiar with the student’s work."
• Deadline for submission: " Submissions, in whole or in part, may be sent between March 1 and April 15 each year and should be sent to [email protected] .  Submissions received after April 15 will not be considered."

Smith-Doheny Legal Ethics Writing Competition

• Deadline for submission was: April 15, 2024.

LSCA/Center for Climate Integrity 2024 Writing Competition (annual)

• Deadline for submission was : April 19, 2024.

Annual Law Student Victims' Rights Writing Competition

• Deadline for submission was extended to: April 21, 2024.

American Bar Association Tort, Trial & Insurance Practice Section Admiralty and Maritime Law Committee: 2024 Law Student Writing Competition  

• Deadline for submission was: April 30, 2024.

Nappert Essay Prize in International Arbitration ( biennial - this competition occurred in 2024)

• Deadline for submission was: April 30, 2024 .

AUWCL National Health Law Writing Competition (annual)

• Deadline: Submission portal opened on December 1, 2023 and closed on May 5 , 2024. 

Michael Greenberg Writing Competition [legal issues of interest to the LGBTQ+ community]

• Deadline: "Submissions open on January 1, 2024 and will close May 10, 2024 at 5:00pm Eastern Time."

Marshall M. Schulman Annual Competition for Student Papers in Criminal Law and/or Criminal Procedure  

• Deadline: "Papers submitted to the Marshall M. Schulman Student Writing Competition must be e-mailed no later than midnight, Sunday, May 12, 2024 ." 

AALL/LexisNexis Call for Papers Competition [any subject relevant to law librarianship]

• Deadline: "To be eligible for an award in the Student Division, papers and all required supporting documents must be received by May 15, 2024."

ABA Journal/Ross Writing Contest for Legal Short Fiction

• Deadline: "Deadline for entries is 5 p.m. CDT May 15, 2024."

American Bar Association Business Law Section: Mendes Hershman Student Writing Contest [business law]

• Deadline: "The ABA will accept entries from April 15, 2024, through midnight (CST) May 15, 2024, and will not consider any entry received after the due date and time."

Morris L. Cohen Student Essay Competition (annual) [legal history, rare law books, or legal archives]

• Deadline: "The entry package must be submitted electronically by 11:59 p.m., May 15, 2024 (EDT) to [email protected] "

Health Law Writing Competition (annual)

• Deadline: " Submissions are due by May 17, 2024."

New York State Bar Association Antitrust Law Section Annual Law Student Writing Competition

• Deadline: "[S] ubmit an electronic copy of the paper, along with a completed Entry Form, by May 30, 2024."

American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy and Resources (SEER): Law Student Writing Competitions (5 competition topic categories)

• Deadline: "Entries must be submitted via email ... by Friday, May 31, 2024, 11:59 p.m. (central)."

American Bar Association Section of Real Property, Trust and Estate Law: 2024 Law Student Writing Contest

• Deadline: "No later than May 31, 2024, 11:59 pm Central Time."

Everytown Law Fund Law Student Writing Competition [gun violence prevention & gun safety]

• Deadline: "All submissions must be received by Friday, May 31, 2024, midnight EST."

Irish Legal History Society Student Essay Competition

• Deadline: "Essays should be received no later than 31st May 2024."

Judge John R. Brown Scholarship Foundation Annual Brown Award

• Award Description: " The Award honors excellence in legal writing in American law schools. Any law student currently enrolled in an accredited law school in the United States seeking a J.D. or LL.B degree is eligible to submit a paper for the Award."

Requirement: "The article must be accompanied by a letter of recommendation from a law school faculty member or legal professional other than the author of the paper. "

Deadline: "The submission must be postmarked no later than May 31, 2024."

National Security Law Writing Competition

• Last known deadline for submissions was: May 31, 2023.   February 23, 2024: Sent email to the Air Force Judge Advocate General's School to try to obtain information about a possible 2024 National Security Law Writing Competition. 
• << Previous: Fall Semester (Sept. - Dec.)
• Next: Summer (June - Aug.) >>
• Last Updated: May 17, 2024 3:29 AM
• URL: https://guides.brooklaw.edu/writing_competitions

Seventh Annual Student Essay Competition

Hayek goes to family court.

Applying Hayek’s theory of law and liberty to contemporary American family law, this Essay concludes that family-law scholars—especially those undertaking distributional analyses—would benefit from greater attention to the Hayekian values of predictability, adaptation, and equal application.

Facilitating Future Workforce Participation for Stay-at-Home Parents: Mitigating the Career Costs of Parenthood

Current policies help parents stay in the workforce after having children. But what about the quarter of American mothers who choose to become stay-at-home moms, then later face employment obstacles? This Essay proposes expanding worker opportunity tax credits and Title VII to help stay-at-home pare…

Volume 133’s Emerging Scholar of the Year: Robyn Powell

Announcing the eighth annual student essay competition, announcing the ylj academic summer grants program, featured content, lock them™ up: holding transnational corporate human-rights abusers accountable, administrative law at a turning point, law and movements: clinical perspectives.

Click here to start your application. Apply now

• The Essay Competition is offered by Northeastern University London, based at Devon House 58 St Katharine’s Way, London, E1W 1LP
• The Competition is open to students who are currently in their penultimate year of secondary education (the equivalent of Y12 in England or Grade 11 in India).
• Entries should answer one of the specified questions.
• Entrants must register here to participate in the competition. We cannot accept submissions if the student has not first registered.
• Essays must be of approximately 1,500 words typed and in double line spacing, with the student’s full name at the bottom or top of each page, and be submitted in Word document or PDF format. We will allow +/- 10% range of 1,500. Titles, references and footnotes are not included in the word count.
• Essays should be submitted via the online form provided in the registration confirmation email.
• When registering for the competition and submitting your essay/report please use the same name throughout and title your file: [Student First Name].[Student Last Name].[Essay subject] e.g ‘Alice.Smith.History’
• When submitting your essay, you must state the name and email address that you used when registering for the competition, using a different name or email may result in disqualification.
• We will only accept essays in the following formats .doc/.docx and .PDF
• The essay must be the sole creation and original work of the entrant. The essay/report must not have been submitted to this or any other essay competition in previous years.
• Any form of plagiarism will result in automatic disqualification.
• Essays/Reports generated with the use of AI or chatbot systems such as ChatGPT or alike will result in automatic disqualification.
• An essay may be a reworked piece of the entrant’s coursework or an extract of their dissertation, provided that it was originally the sole creation of the entrant.
• Shortlisted entries will be approved to warrant that the entrant is eligible for the competition. This will be undertaken by the judges once they have a short list of the best essays.
• No person may submit more than one essay for each annual competition.
• The award winners grant the University the right to publish or reproduce at any time all or part of the award-winning entries.
• The prizes on offer are stated  here . Entrants cannot win more than one prize in any one year. The award of all or any of the prizes lies solely within the discretion of the judges. The judges’ decision will be final.
• The deadline for the receipt of entries is 1pm GMT Sunday 31st December 2023. Please note that late entries cannot be accepted under any circumstances.
• All entries will be acknowledged by email. Entrants who unsubscribe from the University’s emails will not receive acknowledgement of their entry nor will they receive email communications about their performance in the competition. Unfortunately, we do not have the capacity to provide feedback on unsuccessful entries.
• Winners are entitled to refer to the achievement on their CV and university application personal statement.
• It is anticipated that the prize-winners will be announced in March 2024.
• The decision of the Director of Admissions, Recruitment & Marketing on interpretation of these Rules will be final.

Super-Curricular Opportunities

• Over the coming weeks and months we are building up an amazing directory of super-curricular opportunities to pass on to your Sixth Form students to help them with greater depth understanding as well as to support the academic section in their UCAS personal statement.

COMPETITIONS (extensive list being added throughout March 2021 - check back soon)

• https://www.see-science.co.uk/whats-on/competitions/
• https://www.esu.org/competitions/schools-mace/
• https://competition.thebigbangfair.co.uk/about/
• https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/applying-to-oxford/teachers/academic-competitions-schools-and-colleges
• https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/studying-here/schools-and-colleges/activities-by-subject/psychology/psychology-resources/national-psychology-competition/
• https://www.ciwem.org/awards/u...
• https://www.nchlondon.ac.uk/es...

Economics  

• Interest Rate Challenge, the competition designed for 16 to 18 year old students across the UK -  details
• Connell Guides Short Story Competition, open to all year 11 students - details  
• Commonwealth Essay competition, open to anyone between 14-18 years of age - details  
• Christopher Tower Poetry Competition, open to 16-18 year old students in the UK to write a poem and is run by Christchurch College Oxford - details  

Humanities 

• St John's College Classics and Ancient History Essay Competition, open to all UK students currently studying in Year 12 - details  

SUPER-CURRICULAR IDEAS FOR VARIOUS SUBJECTS

University of cambridge -myheplus - details.

• Excellent web site for super-curricular materials

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE SUBJECT MASTERCLASSES - details

• These are subject-specific events that offer students a flavour of undergraduate study and an introduction to the University of Cambridge. The Masterclasses provide students with an opportunity to explore topics of interest beyond what is covered within the A Level syllabus including: Chemistry, Engineering, Genetics, Geography, History, Languages, Mathematics, and Psychology.

LONDON  SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS (LSE) OUTREACH - details

• Mentoring, tutoring, pathways to Law, pathways to banking and finance, Saturday school. Often aimed at students from London schools but their free lecture programme is open to all. 

LONDON  SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS (LSE) FREE LECTURES - details

• Free Lecture programme and podcasts. 

KING'S COLLEGE LONDON - FACTOR MATHS PROGRAMME -  details

• This is a Maths club aimed at Y12 & Y13 students which offers students challenging problems aimed at developing and enriching thinking. Criteria apply in terms of location and diversity. 

STUDENT INVESTOR CHALLENGE - details

• Each year, Year 12 can be part of a major competition, organised by the London Institute of Banking and Finance, which can last several months. It will provide a useful insight into trading in stocks and shares. The Student Investor Challenge gives students the chance to experience what it’s like being a stock broker in a fast-paced and competitive market. Teams, consisting of four members aged between 14 and 19, take control of two investment portfolios with £100,000 of virtual money for each one to invest in the stock market.

ETON SUMMER SCHOOL: July in Year 12 - details

• For your most highly achieving students in Year 12 with Grade 8/9 at GCSE. Ten day residential at Eton College. The residential course costs but those on a bursary can apply for financial support. Only 120 students can attend and location and being a state school are factors. 

SUTTON TRUST SUMMER SCHOOLS - details

• Fantastic summer schools at one of twelve partner universities (Bristol, Cambridge, Durham, Edinburgh, Imperial, KCL, Nottingham, Oxford, St. Andrews, UCL, Warwick, Royal Veterinary College) for high achieving students from low or middle income families. The Summer Schools are 100% free. There are 130 different courses across 11 of the UK’s top universities. The dates for the Summer Schools vary by subject and university.

OXFORD UNIVERSITY UNIQ SUMMER SCHOOLS - details

• UNIQ is open to students studying in their first year of further education, who are based at UK state schools/colleges. Students make a single application between December and January and can be selected to participate in one of two activities: UNIQ Digital or UNIQ Spring and Summer. Register between November and February if interested.

FUTURELEARN (MOOC) - details

• A range of short online courses to deepen subject knowledge through this amazing MOOC site (Massive Open Online Community). Very useful for stretch and challenge and a students’ personal statements. Free to access and complete each course though there is an optional payment for a certificate. 

UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK PODCASTS 

• A wide range of podcasts from politics to engineering - details

UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD - 'EXPLORE YOUR SUBJECT'

• Explore the resources or select a subject area such as Humanities or Social Sciences, followed by a specific subject (Classics, English, etc.)  - details

UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD READING BANK

• A very attractively designed list of books to read with reviews and Youtube clips - details
• Great entry level strategy as students can simply search by theme and then watch a video  -  detail

GRESHAM COLLEGE

• Educational talks and videos for the public free of charge. There are over 3000 videos available on the Gresham website - details

IDEAS FOR SPECIFIC SUBJECTS

• Wonders of life with Brian Cox - click here
• Horizon documentaries with Michael Mosley -  click here
• Biology Ted Talks - click here
• Our Secret Universe: The hidden life of a cell - click here
• Incredible medicine: Dr Weston's Case Book - click here

BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS

Radio 4 podcasts - business and economics.

• 'Bottom Line' huge array of topics. 30 mins podcast with 2-3 people interviewed on a business theme - details
• Applications of Maths useful to studying Economics at University – click here
• Stand Up Economist – click here
• An Economist Walks into a bar – click here
• Tropical Short Videos from The Economist Publication – click here
• Panic: The Untold Story of The Financial Crisis – click here
• The Bank that Bust The World – click here
• Too much maths too little history – click here
• Masters of Money: Keynes – click here
• Masters of Money: Hayek – click here
• Masters of Money: Marx – click here
• Economics in Ten (podcasts) - click here

COMPUTER SCIENCE

• Mysteries of the mind can be solved: A brain in a supercomputer. Henry Markram - click here
• Big Data: Watch the TedTalk on the year open data went worldwide. Tim Berners-Lee -  click here
• Computer Science. University of Oxford Podcasts - Audio and Videos Lectures -  click here

RADIO 4 PODCASTS - LAW

• 'Law In Action' - lots of podcasts on law theme - details

MATHEMATICS

MILLENNIUM MATHEMATICS PROJECT

• University of Cambridge provide this helpful site with ideas to explore mathematics in greater depth -  details

MATHEMATICS FOR NATURAL SCIENCES WORKBOOK (UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE)

•   Pdf document to download full of maths problems - provided by Faculty of Mathematics -  details

RADIO 4 PODCASTS - MATHEMATICS

•  'More or less; behind the statistics - themed podcasts which debunks statistics in the news by exploring the evidence -  details

RADIO 4 PODCASTS - PSYCHOLOGY

• 'All In The Mind' - huge array of podcasts for those interested in psychology - details

RADIO 4 PODCASTS - POLITICS

•  'Political thinking with Nick Robinson' - political journalist, Nick Robinson, explores various themes  -  details
• 'Yesterday in Parliament' - kind of obvious really but great for politics students to keep up-to-date -  details

RADIO 4 PODCASTS - PHILOSOPHY

• 'Moral Maze' - Accessible discussion about morality. Might be some good ideas for EPQ perhaps -  details
• 'The Public Philosopher' - Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel examines the thinking behind a current controversy -  details

RADIO 4 PODCASTS - SOCIOLOGY

• 'Thinking Allowed' - Professor of Sociology addresses various themes and new sociological research -  details

RADIO 4 PODCASTS - SCIENCE

• 'Life Scientific' - Accessible interviews of scientists on current themes and new research -  details
• 'Putting Science to Work' - scientists work out how science can best be put to work to solve a pressing problem facing society -  details

RADIO 4 PODCASTS - NATURAL SCIENCES

• 'Inside Science' - obvious theme - great for science students. Might be some good ideas for EPQ perhaps -  details

RADIO 4 PODCASTS - HISTORY

• 'The Long View' - stories from the past are compared with current events. -  details

RADIO 4 PODCASTS - GEOGRAPHY

• 'Costing the Earth' - fresh ideas from the sharpest minds working toward a cleaner, greener planet -  details

RADIO 4 PODCASTS - COMPUTING AND TECHNOLOGY

• 'Computing Britain' - 75 years of UK computing history in developing the technologies we rely on today -  details

RADIO 4 PODCASTS - ART (includes painters and playwrights)

• 'Only artists' - two artists talk about their creative work - the conversation is free-flowing. Choose the pair talking -  details

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Essay competitions.

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Latest News & Announcements

Fourth circuit 2024 essay contest - deadline may 31.

Seventy years ago, the Supreme Court held in Brown v. Board of Education , 347 U.S. 483 (1954), that racial segregation in public schools violates the United States Constitution. The Court recognized that public education is "the very foundation of good citizenship," and Brown's impact on education and society has been the subject of much discussion and debate in our nation's history.

Has the decision in Brown , viewed through the lens of 2024, achieved its purpose of ensuring equal opportunity in public education?

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit is seeking submissions for its 2024 essay contest. 

Students are invited to consider and share their thoughts on the question: "Has the decision in Brown , viewed through the lens of 2024, achieved its purpose of ensuring equal opportunity in public education?"

The contest is open to all students currently in grades 6 through 12 from Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Grades 9-12: Essays are limited to 500-1,000 words , and students have the opportunity to win one of three cash prizes:  first place, $2,000; second place, $1,500;  and  third place, $1,000.

Grades 6–8: Essays are limited to 250-500 words , and students have the opportunity to win one of three cash prizes: first place, $500; second place, $350;  and  third place, $200. Deadline: Entry form and essay must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, May 31, 2024 . Winners will be announced in August, and the winning essays will be presented at the Fourth Circuit's Constitution Day Program in September 2024.

For instructions on how to submit your essay and questions to consider, visit www.ca4.uscourts.gov/essay-contest .

For questions about the contest, contact the Fourth Circuit Clerk’s Office at [email protected] or (804) 916-2715.

Please note: Prior award winners as well as children, grandchildren, stepchildren, and members of the household of a federal judge or federal judiciary employee are excluded from the competition.

Summer 2024 Admissions Open Now. Sign up for upcoming live information sessions here (featuring former and current Admission Officers at Havard and UPenn).

Discourse, debate, and analysis

Cambridge re:think essay competition 2024.

Competition Opens: 15th January, 2024

Essay Submission Deadline: 10th May, 2024 Result Announcement: 20th June, 2024 Award Ceremony and Dinner at the University of Cambridge: 30th July, 2024

We welcome talented high school students from diverse educational settings worldwide to contribute their unique perspectives to the competition.

Entry to the competition is free.

About the Competition

The spirit of the Re:think essay competition is to encourage critical thinking and exploration of a wide range of thought-provoking and often controversial topics. The competition covers a diverse array of subjects, from historical and present issues to speculative future scenarios. Participants are invited to engage deeply with these topics, critically analysing their various facets and implications. It promotes intellectual exploration and encourages participants to challenge established norms and beliefs, presenting opportunities to envision alternative futures, consider the consequences of new technologies, and reevaluate longstanding traditions. 

Ultimately, our aim is to create a platform for students and scholars to share their perspectives on pressing issues of the past and future, with the hope of broadening our collective understanding and generating innovative solutions to contemporary challenges. This year’s competition aims to underscore the importance of discourse, debate, and critical analysis in addressing complex societal issues in nine areas, including:

Religion and Politics

Political science and law, linguistics, environment, sociology and philosophy, business and investment, public health and sustainability, biotechonology.

Artificial Intelligence 

Neuroengineering

2024 essay prompts.

This year, the essay prompts are contributed by distinguished professors from Harvard, Brown, UC Berkeley, Cambridge, Oxford, and MIT.

Essay Guidelines and Judging Criteria

Review general guidelines, format guidelines, eligibility, judging criteria.

Awards and Award Ceremony

Award winners will be invited to attend the Award Ceremony and Dinner hosted at the King’s College, University of Cambridge. The Dinner is free of charge for select award recipients.

Registration and Submission

Register a participant account today and submit your essay before the deadline.

Advisory Committee and Judging Panel

The Cambridge Re:think Essay Competition is guided by an esteemed Advisory Committee comprising distinguished academics and experts from elite universities worldwide. These committee members, drawn from prestigious institutions, such as Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford, and MIT, bring diverse expertise in various disciplines.

They play a pivotal role in shaping the competition, contributing their insights to curate the themes and framework. Their collective knowledge and scholarly guidance ensure the competition’s relevance, academic rigour, and intellectual depth, setting the stage for aspiring minds to engage with thought-provoking topics and ideas.

We are honoured to invite the following distinguished professors to contribute to this year’s competition.

The judging panel of the competition comprises leading researchers and professors from Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Cambridge, and Oxford, engaging in a strictly double blind review process.

Keynote Speeches by 10 Nobel Laureates

We are beyond excited to announce that multiple Nobel laureates have confirmed to attend and speak at this year’s ceremony on 30th July, 2024 .

They will each be delivering a keynote speech to the attendees. Some of them distinguished speakers will speak virtually, while others will attend and present in person and attend the Reception at Cambridge.

Why has religion remained a force in a secular world? 

Professor Commentary:

Arguably, the developed world has become more secular in the last century or so. The influence of Christianity, e.g. has diminished and people’s life worlds are less shaped by faith and allegiance to Churches. Conversely, arguments have persisted that hold that we live in a post-secular world. After all, religion – be it in terms of faith, transcendence, or meaning – may be seen as an alternative to a disenchanted world ruled by entirely profane criteria such as economic rationality, progressivism, or science. Is the revival of religion a pale reminder of a by-gone past or does it provide sources of hope for the future?

‘Religion in the Public Sphere’ by Jürgen Habermas (European Journal of Philosophy, 2006)

In this paper, philosopher Jürgen Habermas discusses the limits of church-state separation, emphasizing the significant contribution of religion to public discourse when translated into publicly accessible reasons.

‘Public Religions in the Modern World’ by José Casanova (University Of Chicago Press, 1994)

Sociologist José Casanova explores the global emergence of public religion, analyzing case studies from Catholicism and Protestantism in Spain, Poland, Brazil, and the USA, challenging traditional theories of secularization.

‘The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere’ by Judith Butler, Jürgen Habermas, Charles Taylor, and Cornel West (Edited by Eduardo Mendieta and Jonathan VanAntwerpen, Columbia University Press, 2011)

This collection features dialogues by prominent intellectuals on the role of religion in the public sphere, examining various approaches and their impacts on cultural, social, and political debates.

‘Rethinking Secularism’ by Craig Calhoun, Mark Juergensmeyer, and Jonathan VanAntwerpen (Oxford University Press, 2011)

An interdisciplinary examination of secularism, this book challenges traditional views, highlighting the complex relationship between religion and secularism in contemporary global politics.

‘God is Back: How the Global Rise of Faith is Changing the World’ by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge (Penguin, 2010)

Micklethwait and Wooldridge argue for the coexistence of religion and modernity, suggesting that religious beliefs can contribute to a more open, tolerant, and peaceful modern world.

‘Multiculturalism’ by Tariq Modood (Polity Press, 2013)

Sociologist Tariq Modood emphasizes the importance of multiculturalism in integrating diverse identities, particularly in post-immigration contexts, and its role in shaping democratic citizenship.

‘God’s Agents: Biblical Publicity in Contemporary England’ by Matthew Engelke (University of California Press, 2013)

In this ethnographic study, Matthew Engelke explores how a group in England seeks to expand the role of religion in the public sphere, challenging perceptions of religion in post-secular England.

Gene therapy is a medical approach that treats or prevents disease by correcting the underlying genetic problem. Is gene therapy better than traditional medicines? What are the pros and cons of using gene therapy as a medicine? Is gene therapy justifiable?

Especially after Covid-19 mRNA vaccines, gene therapy is getting more and more interesting approach to cure. That’s why that could be interesting to think about. I believe that students will enjoy and learn a lot while they are investigating this topic.

The Hall at King’s College, Cambridge

The Hall was designed by William Wilkins in the 1820s and is considered one of the most magnificent halls of its era. The first High Table dinner in the Hall was held in February 1828, and ever since then, the splendid Hall has been where members of the college eat and where formal dinners have been held for centuries.

The Award Ceremony and Dinner will be held in the Hall in the evening of  30th July, 2024.

Stretching out down to the River Cam, the Back Lawn has one of the most iconic backdrop of King’s College Chapel. 

The early evening reception will be hosted on the Back Lawn with the iconic Chapel in the background (weather permitting). 

King’s College Chapel

With construction started in 1446 by Henry VI and took over a century to build, King’s College Chapel is one of the most iconic buildings in the world, and is a splendid example of late Gothic architecture. 

Attendees are also granted complimentary access to the King’s College Chapel before and during the event. 

Confirmed Nobel Laureates

Dr Thomas R. Cech

The nobel prize in chemistry 1989 , for the discovery of catalytic properties of rna.

Thomas Robert Cech is an American chemist who shared the 1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Sidney Altman, for their discovery of the catalytic properties of RNA. Cech discovered that RNA could itself cut strands of RNA, suggesting that life might have started as RNA. He found that RNA can not only transmit instructions, but also that it can speed up the necessary reactions.

He also studied telomeres, and his lab discovered an enzyme, TERT (telomerase reverse transcriptase), which is part of the process of restoring telomeres after they are shortened during cell division.

As president of Howard Hughes Medical Institute, he promoted science education, and he teaches an undergraduate chemistry course at the University of Colorado

Sir Richard J. Roberts

The nobel prize in medicine 1993 .

F or the discovery of split genes

During 1969–1972, Sir Richard J. Roberts did postdoctoral research at Harvard University before moving to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was hired by James Dewey Watson, a co-discoverer of the structure of DNA and a fellow Nobel laureate. In this period he also visited the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology for the first time, working alongside Fred Sanger. In 1977, he published his discovery of RNA splicing. In 1992, he moved to New England Biolabs. The following year, he shared a Nobel Prize with his former colleague at Cold Spring Harbor Phillip Allen Sharp.

His discovery of the alternative splicing of genes, in particular, has had a profound impact on the study and applications of molecular biology. The realisation that individual genes could exist as separate, disconnected segments within longer strands of DNA first arose in his 1977 study of adenovirus, one of the viruses responsible for causing the common cold. Robert’s research in this field resulted in a fundamental shift in our understanding of genetics, and has led to the discovery of split genes in higher organisms, including human beings.

Dr Aaron Ciechanover

The nobel prize in chemistry 2004 .

F or the discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation

Aaron Ciechanover is one of Israel’s first Nobel Laureates in science, earning his Nobel Prize in 2004 for his work in ubiquitination. He is honored for playing a central role in the history of Israel and in the history of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.

Dr Ciechanover is currently a Technion Distinguished Research Professor in the Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and Research Institute at the Technion. He is a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the Russian Academy of Sciences and is a foreign associate of the United States National Academy of Sciences. In 2008, he was a visiting Distinguished Chair Professor at NCKU, Taiwan. As part of Shenzhen’s 13th Five-Year Plan funding research in emerging technologies and opening “Nobel laureate research labs”, in 2018 he opened the Ciechanover Institute of Precision and Regenerative Medicine at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen campus.

Dr Robert Lefkowitz

The nobel prize in chemistry 2012 .

F or the discovery of G protein-coupled receptors

Robert Joseph Lefkowitz is an American physician (internist and cardiologist) and biochemist. He is best known for his discoveries that reveal the inner workings of an important family G protein-coupled receptors, for which he was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Brian Kobilka. He is currently an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as well as a James B. Duke Professor of Medicine and Professor of Biochemistry and Chemistry at Duke University.

Dr Lefkowitz made a remarkable contribution in the mid-1980s when he and his colleagues cloned the gene first for the β-adrenergic receptor, and then rapidly thereafter, for a total of 8 adrenergic receptors (receptors for adrenaline and noradrenaline). This led to the seminal discovery that all GPCRs (which include the β-adrenergic receptor) have a very similar molecular structure. The structure is defined by an amino acid sequence which weaves its way back and forth across the plasma membrane seven times. Today we know that about 1,000 receptors in the human body belong to this same family. The importance of this is that all of these receptors use the same basic mechanisms so that pharmaceutical researchers now understand how to effectively target the largest receptor family in the human body. Today, as many as 30 to 50 percent of all prescription drugs are designed to “fit” like keys into the similarly structured locks of Dr Lefkowitz’ receptors—everything from anti-histamines to ulcer drugs to beta blockers that help relieve hypertension, angina and coronary disease.

Dr Lefkowitz is among the most highly cited researchers in the fields of biology, biochemistry, pharmacology, toxicology, and clinical medicine according to Thomson-ISI.

Dr Joachim Frank

The nobel prize in chemistry 2017 .

F or developing cryo-electron microscopy

Joachim Frank is a German-American biophysicist at Columbia University and a Nobel laureate. He is regarded as the founder of single-particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2017 with Jacques Dubochet and Richard Henderson. He also made significant contributions to structure and function of the ribosome from bacteria and eukaryotes.

In 1975, Dr Frank was offered a position of senior research scientist in the Division of Laboratories and Research (now Wadsworth Center), New York State Department of Health,where he started working on single-particle approaches in electron microscopy. In 1985 he was appointed associate and then (1986) full professor at the newly formed Department of Biomedical Sciences of the University at Albany, State University of New York. In 1987 and 1994, he went on sabbaticals in Europe, one to work with Richard Henderson, Laboratory of Molecular Biology Medical Research Council in Cambridge and the other as a Humboldt Research Award winner with Kenneth C. Holmes, Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg. In 1998, Dr Frank was appointed investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Since 2003 he was also lecturer at Columbia University, and he joined Columbia University in 2008 as professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics and of biological sciences.

Dr Barry C. Barish

The nobel prize in physics 2017 .

For the decisive contributions to the detection of gravitational waves

Dr Barry Clark Barish is an American experimental physicist and Nobel Laureate. He is a Linde Professor of Physics, emeritus at California Institute of Technology and a leading expert on gravitational waves.

In 2017, Barish was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics along with Rainer Weiss and Kip Thorne “for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves”. He said, “I didn’t know if I would succeed. I was afraid I would fail, but because I tried, I had a breakthrough.”

In 2018, he joined the faculty at University of California, Riverside, becoming the university’s second Nobel Prize winner on the faculty.

In the fall of 2023, he joined Stony Brook University as the inaugural President’s Distinguished Endowed Chair in Physics.

In 2023, Dr Barish was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Biden in a White House ceremony.

Dr Harvey J. Alter

The nobel prize in medicine 2020 .

For the discovery of Hepatitis C virus

Dr Harvey J. Alter is an American medical researcher, virologist, physician and Nobel Prize laureate, who is best known for his work that led to the discovery of the hepatitis C virus. Alter is the former chief of the infectious disease section and the associate director for research of the Department of Transfusion Medicine at the Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. In the mid-1970s, Alter and his research team demonstrated that most post-transfusion hepatitis cases were not due to hepatitis A or hepatitis B viruses. Working independently, Alter and Edward Tabor, a scientist at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, proved through transmission studies in chimpanzees that a new form of hepatitis, initially called “non-A, non-B hepatitis” caused the infections, and that the causative agent was probably a virus. This work eventually led to the discovery of the hepatitis C virus in 1988, for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2020 along with Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice.

Dr Alter has received recognition for the research leading to the discovery of the virus that causes hepatitis C. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, the highest award conferred to civilians in United States government public health service, and the 2000 Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research.

Dr Ardem Patapoutian

The nobel prize in medicine 2021 .

For discovering how pressure is translated into nerve impulses

Dr Ardem Patapoutian is an Lebanese-American molecular biologist, neuroscientist, and Nobel Prize laureate of Armenian descent. He is known for his work in characterising the PIEZO1, PIEZO2, and TRPM8 receptors that detect pressure, menthol, and temperature. Dr Patapoutian is a neuroscience professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California. In 2021, he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with David Julius.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why should I participate in the Re:think essay competition? 

The Re:think Essay competition is meant to serve as fertile ground for honing writing skills, fostering critical thinking, and refining communication abilities. Winning or participating in reputable contests can lead to recognition, awards, scholarships, or even publication opportunities, elevating your academic profile for college applications and future endeavours. Moreover, these competitions facilitate intellectual growth by encouraging exploration of diverse topics, while also providing networking opportunities and exposure to peers, educators, and professionals. Beyond accolades, they instil confidence, prepare for higher education demands, and often allow you to contribute meaningfully to societal conversations or causes, making an impact with your ideas.

Who is eligible to enter the Re:think essay competition?  

As long as you’re currently attending high school, regardless of your location or background, you’re eligible to participate. We welcome students from diverse educational settings worldwide to contribute their unique perspectives to the competition.

Is there any entry fee for the competition? 

There is no entry fee for the competition. Waiving the entry fee for our essay competition demonstrates CCIR’s dedication to equity. CCIR believes everyone should have an equal chance to participate and showcase their talents, regardless of financial circumstances. Removing this barrier ensures a diverse pool of participants and emphasises merit and creativity over economic capacity, fostering a fair and inclusive environment for all contributors.

Subscribe for Competition Updates

If you are interested to receive latest information and updates of this year’s competition, please sign up here.

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Eduvision Essay Writing Competition 2024

Eduvision announces Essay Writing Competition 2024 for students aged between 14 to 18 years. Students from all over Pakistan can participate in the competition. 600 to 700 words essay on the topic of "What is the greatest virtue" written in Urdu or English may be sent to eduvision through courier or normal post before June 01, 2024.

The result of the competition will be announced on July 01, 2024. The top three position holders will receive an award of PKR: 10,000/-, PKR: 5,000 and pkr: 3,000/- each. An online training workshop will be arranged for the participants. Certificates of honor will be given to all the students who participated in the competition.

• First Prize: Rs.10000
• Second Prize: 5000 rupees
• Third Prize: 3000 rupees

Last date of submission is 01 June 2024.

Terms & Conditions

• Essay should contain 600 to 700 words.
• Essay should be in Urdu or English language.
• Articles must arrive before the due date.
• Essay should be written on A4 size paper

Eligibility

To participate in the competition, the age of male and female students should be between 14 to 18 years.

An online workshop will be conducted exclusively on "Essay Writing" by Career Counselor Yusuf Almas for all the students participating in the competition.

Submission Procedure: Send your essay through Pakistan Post or Courier to the given address to reach the Education Office by the due date.

House: 70, St-92,

G-13/1, Islamabad 

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