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Third annual Student Essay Competition of the International Refugee Law Interest Group of the American Society of International Law

Published on the 22 Aug 2016

Annual International Refugee Law - Student Writing Competition

The American Society of International Law’s International Refugee Law Interest Group (IRLIG) announced its third annual International Refugee Law Student Writing Competition, co-sponsored by the Global Migration Centre at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva; the International Law Students Association (ILSA); the International Journal of Refugee Law; and the American Society of International Law (ASIL). 

Eligibility and Requirements:

  1. Papers may address any topic related to international law and refugees, internally-displaced persons (IDPs), and forced migrants. 
  2. Student authors must be enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate degree program at an accredited university at the time of submission. 
  3. Papers must be written solely by the candidate, in English, and may not have been submitted for publication elsewhere. 
  4. Citations should be in footnotes, rather than endnotes. If the paper is selected for publication in the International Journal of Refugee Law, it must comply with the Journal’s style sheet and the OSCOLA footnote style. For that reason, students may choose to adopt this style in their manuscripts.
  5. Submissions may range from 7,000 to 12,000 words, including footnotes.
  6. Each candidate is limited to a single submission.

Deadline and Method of Submission: 

  1. The deadline for submissions is 11:59 PM Eastern Standard Time, 21 November 2016.
  2. Articles should be submitted to irlig@ilsa.org as Microsoft Word attachments. Questions should be directed to the same address.
  3. By submitting papers, candidates represent that they fulfill the eligibility requirements of the Competition. The organizers may request formal proof of eligibility. 
  4. No later than 24 hours after the submission deadline, candidates will receive an e-mail confirming that their submissions have been received.

Competition Procedures and Selection Criteria:

  1. The author’s name and affiliation, the paper title, and word count should be written on a separate first page. Nothing identifying the author should be included in the paper itself. 
  2. The administrator will detach the first page, and each submitter will be assigned a number. Reviewers will refer only to those numbers in their communications. 
  3. The Competition will be judged by reviewers named by IRLIG, in consultation with ILSA and the other co-sponsors. In assessing papers, reviewers will take into account: 
    a.knowledge of facts and law;
    b.proper and articulate analysis;
    c.extent of research, innovation, and scholarly creativity;
    d.clarity and organization;
    e.style, grammar, and proper citation of sources.
  4. No paper will be reviewed by fewer than three reviewers. Each reviewer will assign a numerical grade to each paper. The five papers with the highest average scores will be reviewed by a specially-designated panel of three judges to determine the winner
  5. A message announcing the name of the winner of the Student Writing Competition will be sent to all members of the International Refugee Law Interest Group following the final selection, as well as to the co-sponsors and to the IRLIG forum on asil.org. An e-mail with the final outcome will also be sent to all who submitted papers.

Award and Announcement:

  1. The winner of the Third Annual International Refugee Law Student Writing Competition will receive a $100 cash award, as well as free admission to the ASIL Annual Meeting, to be held in Washington, 12-15 April 2017, from IRLIG; the opportunity to have the paper considered for publication in the International Journal of Refugee Law; and a complimentary one-year student membership provided by ASIL.
  2. The award will be formally presented at the ASIL Annual Meeting, 
  3. To enable the winner to attend the Annual Meeting, The Global Migration Centre at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies Geneva will contribute up to Sfr 1,500 toward travel expenses.