AIJA Best International Future Lawyers Award • 2022
AIJA Best International Future Lawyers Award

2022 Contest Topic

We are thrilled to invite law students and recent law graduates to participate in AIJA’s 2022 Best International Future Lawyer Award competition!

This year the competition is focused on the future of the legal profession as we emerge from the COVID pandemic into a changed world and a legal profession in flux. Law students who have had their legal educations altered by the pandemic and recent law graduates who have begun their careers in the time of COVID are invited to reflect on the unexpected lessons learned during these challenging times, as well as on the opportunities created by this time of change for new and future international lawyers.

The aim of the competition is to welcome new and diverse voices into a discussion about these timely issues ahead of AIJA’s 60th Annual Congress in Singapore in August 2022

Contest Submission Format

Entrees for the Best International Future Lawyer Award 2022 are to be recorded and submitted to AIJA using a “video blog” format.

In a video blog, the entrant appears in the video and presents their reflections orally. Video blog submissions should last a minimum of 3 minutes and should not exceed 5 minutes in duration. English will be the language used in the video blogs. The intended audience for the video blog submission is AIJA’s members. Entrees will be judged for their substance, for their creativity, and for their ability to capture the intended audience’s attention while causing the intended audience to reflect on this year’s topic and the video blogger’s presentation.

AIJA will accept common video file formats generated by smartphones and computers including AVI, FLV, MOV, MP4 and WMV.
Video blog entrees are to be submitted to AIJA through a Google Forms link by 15 May 2022 before midnight CET.

Prize

The 2022 Best International Future Lawyer Award Winner will be honoured with:

Free AIJA membership until 2025.

Publication of the winner’s name and video blog on AIJA’s channels.

Invitation to attend free of charge AIJA’s 60th Annual Congress in Singapore with travel and accommodation costs paid by AIJA, or, in the event of a conflict or inability to travel to Singapore, attendance, travel and accommodation to one of AIJA’s next conferences.

Past Winners

2020 - “‘Do it right’: The initiative for diversity across the board”, Isabel Lightbody - Read here the essay

2019 - “Taking a Stand: Achieving Climate Change Action through Climate Litigation”, Xuejun Zhao - Read here the essay

2018 - “Lunar Law - Is it mere Colony Law with Cosmic Application?”, Christopher Sawyer - Read here the essay

2017 - “Will the increasing use of technology in law invigorate or diminish legal professionalism as the nature of information in the Digital Society changes?”, Lorraine Chimbga - Read here the essay

2016 - “Governing Shared Natural Resources of the International Seabed Area”, Sharefah Almuhana - Read here the essay

Terms & conditions

  1. Description: The Best International Future Lawyer Award (the “Award”) is granted by AIJA for the best video blog submission (the “submission”) submitted on a given topic each year. The competition is free to enter.
  2. Eligible candidates:
    1. Law students aged 45 and under who are still enrolled at any university worldwide at the time the video blog is submitted. Eligible candidates may be pursuing law studies at any level - including graduate or postgraduate studies - to the extent that they are not yet fully admitted to practice and/or fully licensed in their jurisdiction.
    2. Law graduates aged 45 and under who graduated after 31 August 2020.
    3. AIJA membership is not a requirement.
    4. Previous winners of this or any other AIJA award or scholarship are excluded from the Competition. All other Eligible candidates from previous years may apply again.
  3. Submission Format: Eligible candidates may only submit one individual submission per year. Entrees must be submitted in video format through the following Google Forms link. AIJA will accept common video file formats generated by smartphones and computers including AVI, FLV, MOV, MP4 and WMV. The framing can be either landscape or portrait and ideally in 4k definition, but files beyond 100 Mb will not be accepted for upload.
  4. Deadline: Submissions are due by 15 May 2022 before midnight CET. AIJA will start accepting entries as of 1 April 2022. Submission deadlines will be strictly observed; late entries will not be accepted.
  5. Additional submission requirements:
    1. The submission must be the original work of the entrant.
    2. While identifying information shall be part of the submission, the video blog itself needs to be anonymous. This means that the video blog must not identify the blogger or their employer, university, location or home country or jurisdiction. The blogger may, however, appear in the video blog. AIJA may disqualify any submission that includes unnecessary information in the video blog.
  6. Evaluation:
    1. Anonymisation: Each submission will be detached from identifying information before submission to the evaluators and will be assigned a number for identification purposes which will be provided to the evaluators.
    2. Evaluators: The evaluation will be done by a panel of selected judges chosen by the National Representatives Committee of AIJA. There will be an evaluation panel consisting of at least three Evaluators. The Evaluators will view the anonymised submissions and will select one as the winner by majority of votes (the “Winner”).
    3. Evaluation Criteria: Submissions will be evaluated on their substance, for their creativity, and for their ability to capture the intended audience’s attention while causing the intended audience to reflect on the video blogger’s presentation. Bearing in mind that part or most of the eligible candidates may not be native English speakers, Evaluators will nonetheless take into consideration clarity, structure, and overall presentation. Eligible candidates shall have no claim to be awarded the Award, even if all prerequisites are met. The decisions made by the Evaluators cannot be appealed against.
  7. Winner Selection, Notification and Prize: The Winner will be selected on or about 15 June 2022 and will be informed on or about that date. The Winner will be honoured with:
    1. Free AIJA membership for the three years following the award ceremony.
    2. Publication of the Winner’s name and submission on AIJA’s communication channels (website, social media etc.).
    3. Invitation to one of the next AIJA Conferences or the Annual Congress as soon as possible in the light of COVID-19 and objective availability of the Winner, the final decision on the event being at the discretion of AIJA. The Winner (i) might be required to present a summary at the event; (ii) might be required to attend a webinar, an online meeting of its bodies concerning the Award, or a similar online event of AIJA prior to the event, and (ii) will be granted an Award certificate during the event. The Winner will be exempt from paying registration fees. In addition, AIJA will pay for economy travelling expenses and accommodation. The Winner will also receive a specific badge.
    4. At the discretion of AIJA and subject to the terms of any sponsorship agreement, an award granted by a sponsor of the Best International Future Lawyer Award for the particular year.
  8. Further Recognition/Awards: AIJA and the Evaluators reserve the right, depending on the quality, quantity, geographic spread of the submissions, to recognise and/or award further submissions, with a prize of its choice. Eligible candidates shall have no claim to receive such recognition/award. The decisions made by the Evaluators cannot be appealed against.
  9. Copyright: AIJA shall be fully entitled to publish, electronically and in any other format, the winning submission in any AIJA’s publications in any format or language. The Winner will be fully accredited as creator of the content.
  10. Promotion and Collaboration: AIJA shall be fully entitled to publish the Winner’s (as well as any other award recipient’s) name, video and photo for publicity purposes on the AIJA websites (www.aija.org, awards.aija.org), newsletters, social media, as well as third party partners’ websites. AIJA may require the Winner (as well as any other award recipients) to attend in reasonable scope its online activities, such as an online meeting of its bodies concerning the Award or this competition, or a webinar.

Application form

Please send your submission to AIJA through the Google Forms by 15 May 2022 before midnight CET.

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