NOW OPEN: International Arbitration Writing Contest

The Georgetown International Arbitration Society ("GIAS"), in partnership with the Georgetown Journal of International Law (“GJIL”), and with the support of the Office of Graduate Programs, is pleased to invite Georgetown students to participate in the inaugural International Arbitration Writing Contest. The Contest is intended to foster debate, analysis, and examination of international arbitration (commercial and investment treaty-based) in the Georgetown community. The primary goals are to make meaningful contributions to the international law field and encourage outstanding student scholarship that promotes interest in international arbitration.

Details on the competition can be found below.

WRITING TOPIC

We invite papers on cutting-edge legal issues regarding international arbitration (international commercial arbitration, investor-state, and treaty-based arbitration). Additionally, the papers should be focused on topics of international law within the scope of GJIL’s publications according to the description provided by the GJIL’s notes guide:

"A Topic of International Law refers not to comparative law or application of domestic law internationally, but to a set of rules generally regarded and accepted as binding in relations between states. Thus, a paper comparing sexual harassment schemes in France and the U.S. IS NOT a paper of international law scholarship, but a paper analyzing the applicability of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to sexual harassment claims IS a paper of international law scholarship. Note that the former topic can be reframed as a paper of international law scholarship if, for example, the author were to compare sexual harassment schemes in France and the U.S. in the context of the UDHR." 

DATES OF COMPETITION

Activity	Date
General Announcement	January 28, 2014
Deadline for submissions	April 28, 2014
Winners Announcement	May 27, 2014

COMPETITION AWARDS

1. The First Place Winner will be awarded publication of her or his paper in the print edition of the Georgetown Journal of International Law.
2. The Second Place Winner will be awarded publication of her or his paper in The Summit, the online companion to the Georgetown Journal of International Law.

COMPETITION RULES

• Submissions should be prepared with the following separated files:

First File - Paper. It should be between 25 and 50 pages, double-spaced, Times New Roman, and formatted as doc or .docx. Additionally, the papers should be accompanied by an abstract.

Second File - Author’s identification. This file (word document or PDF) should include the following information: author’s name, e‐mail, postal address, NetID, and telephone number.

• The contest is open to students currently enrolled in Georgetown Law (J.D., LL.M, and S.J.D).
• Each submitted paper must be the original and unpublished work of a single author.
• All citations should conform to the latest Edition of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation. For sources where The Bluebook does not provide a specific rule, analogies can be made to similar sources in The Bluebook.
• Electronic versions of the papers should be submitted by email to arbitrationcontest@gmail.com.
• Papers will be judged on:

o   originality of thought,

o   depth of analysis,

o   knowledge and use of applicable legal principles,

o   logical strength of conclusions.

o   writing quality and style,

o   and organization.

•  We recommend that authors conduct a preemption check before submission in order to ensure that their argument is original and that they have a unique argument. 
• The submission of any paper is the participant’s guarantee that he/she is the sole author and copyright holder of the paper.
• As members of the Georgetown community, participants are expected to follow the Georgetown Student Disciplinary Code.
•  GJIL will contact the first and second place winners.
• Winners must agree to work collaboratively with the GJIL Staff prior to the publication of her or his paper.

For more information, please contact arbitrationcontest@gmail.com.