Annual International Refugee Law Student Writing Competition Now Open

Posted on by Chris Bonnez
The American Society of International Law’s International Refugee Law Interest Group (IRLIG) announces its sixth annual International Refugee Law Student Writing Competition, co-sponsored by:

  • Global Migration Centre, ASIL Academic Partner Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies Geneva
  • International Law Students Association (ILSA)
  • International Journal of Refugee Law
  • Oxford University Press
  • American Society of International Law (ASIL)

Eligibility and Requirements

  1. Papers may address any topic related to international law and refugees, stateless persons, 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.
  7. Each submission is limited to a single author.

Deadline and Method of Submission

  1. The deadline for submissions is 11:59 PM Eastern Standard Time, 15 January 2020.
  2. Articles should be submitted to [email protected] 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 72 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:
  4. knowledge of facts and law;
  5. proper and articulate analysis;
  6. extent of research, innovation, and scholarly creativity;
  7. clarity and organization;
  8. style, grammar, and proper citation of sources.
  9. 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 www.asil.org. The winner’s name will also appear in the program of the ASIL Annual Meeting. An e-mail with the final outcome will also be sent to all who submitted papers.

Award and Announcement

  1. The winner of the sixth annual International Refugee Law Student Writing Competition will receive from IRLIG a $100 cash award, as well as complimentary admission to the 114th ASIL Annual Meeting, to be held in Washington, DC, from 1-4 April 2020; a complimentary one-year student membership provided by ASIL; and £300 worth of books from Oxford University Press. The winning paper will also be promptly reviewed by the editorial team of the International Journal of Refugee Law, who will advise and work with the winner with a view to bringing the paper forward to publication.
  2. The award will be formally presented at the 114th ASIL Annual Meeting.
  3. To enable the winner to attend the Annual Meeting, the Global Migration Centre at ASIL Academic Partner Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies Geneva will contribute up to Sfr 1,500 toward travel expenses.