Law Reform Essay Competition

The Bar Council's Law Reform Essay Competition is aimed at developing and fostering an interest in law reform.

The competition invites entrants to submit a 3,000 word essay making the case for a reform to English, Welsh or European law.

The 2020 competition is now closed.

Find out more by watching the Law Reform Essay Competition video.

This annual competition is sponsored by the Bar Council Scholarships Trust and coordinated by the Bar Council. It offers prizes in the following categories:

£4,000 for the winner
£2,500 for the runner up
£1,500 for the best CPE/GDL entry
£1,000 for the runner up CPE/GDL entry
2 x £500 highly commended award

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

Who can apply?

The competition is open to anyone undertaking the academic or vocational stage of training for the Bar (including those studying for a law degree, GDL or the vocational component), those currently seeking or completing pupillage, and those in the process of transferring to the Bar.

Make your application

Download the rules and entry form

Winning Essay Entries

2020

Winner: Oliver Brewis - "Unravelling the sleeve of care: Fair Remuneration for Employer-contracted Sleep"

Read Oliver's blog

Runner-up: Rossen Roussanov - "Citizens of nowhere: the case for a statutory appeal right as part of the UK Statelessness Determination Procedure"

Best CPE/GDL entry: David Illingworth - “Medieval institutions and god-like technology”: rescuing the Carltona doctrine from uncertainty and irrelevance in the digital age

Runner-up CPE/GDL: Miranda Sadler - Neighbours will need a Plan B: introducing third party appeals to planning decisions in a soon-to-be streamlined planning system

Highly commended: Joseph Kelen - End the criminalisation of Homelessness: Why the Vagrancy Act 1824 must be repealed

Highly commended: Danielle Carrington - Fail to Choose, Choose to Fail: Reform of the Choice of Law Principles to Determine the Law Applicable to the Arbitration Agreement

2019

Winner: Penny Tridimas - "The Long and the Short of It: Introducing a Summary Procedure for the Dismissal of Unmeritorious Claims in the Arbitration Act 1996"
Read Penny's blog

Runner-up: Zohra Nabi - "The SLAPPback starts now: Why legislation must be introduced to prevent the abuse of the law of defamation"
Best CPE/GDL: Benjamin Williams - "With (McKenzie) Friends Like These: Prohibiting Fee Recovery by McKenzie Friends"
Runner-up CPE/GDL: Katherine Boucher - "Redressing the Balance: The Case for the Reform of Trustee Liability in Transactions with Third Parties"
Highly commended: Rich Hodges - "In the best interest of the child? Prosecutions brought against Children under the Sexual Offences Act 2003"

2018

Winner: Josephine Teale - "Myths, Misconceptions and #MeToo: Expert Evidence in Historic Sexual Offence Trials"
Runner-up: Amy Woolfson - "Not a silver bullet... but a bullet nonetheless: Ending the ban on the use of intercept material in criminal proceedings"
Best CPE/GDL: Lucy McCann - "A case for extending the Freedom of Information Act (2000) to private companies delivering public services through government contracts"
Runner-up CPE/GDL: Edward Mordaunt - "Quamdiu bene se gesserint: Reforming The Judicial Pensions and Retirement Act 1993"
Highly commended: Katie Ratcliffe - "Who wants to live forever?' Determining the future of online social accounts in intestacy"
Highly commended: Christopher Eames - "Taxing Tech: Bringing Permanent Establishment into the 21st Century"

2017

Winner: Ian McDonald - "One rule for all: An end to the Abouloff double standard on fraud and foreign judgments"
Runner-up: Mark Ong - "Connecting mental disorders to physical ones: an autonomy-centric reform of nonconsensual treatment under S63 of the Mental Health Act 1983"
Best CPE/GDL: Clarissa Wigoder - "Spare the rod: Why the law on corporal punishment needs to be reformed"
Runner up CPE/GDL: Daniel Fox - "I hate being idle: Asylum seekers and the right to work"
Highly commended: Katherine Wright - "When clinical becomes criminal: Reforming medical manslaughter"
Highly commended: Sophie Smith-Holland - "It's not you...and it's not me, either: The case for no-fault divorce in England and Wales"

2016

Winner: Samuel Linehan - "Putting the wheels back on: a better approach to compensation for miscarriages of justice"
Runner-up: Jake Richards -  "The Law of Surrogacy: 'a ticking legal time-bomb'"
Best CPE/GDL:  Phoebe Whitlock -  "Rivalling Silicon Valley: The Case for the Reform of the Software Patents"
Runner up CPE/GDL:  Kajetan Wandowicz -  "Pay more or leave the barber's with your hair half-cut: why Williams v Roffey Bros should be reversed by Parliament"
Highly commended:  Amelia Highnam - "I do, I don't or a happy medium: Extending the reach of civil partnerships to opposite-sex couples"
Highly commended: Elizabeth Anderson - "Single Parents and Surrogacy"

2015

Winner: Emma Fitzsimons - "Rage Against the Machines: Post-strike scrutiny for targeted killings"
Runner-up: Lewis Hadler - "What's Wrong With Adultery? An argument to modernise the definition of adultery in divorce law"
Best CPE/GDL: Alex du Sautoy - "Electorally Challenged: Protecting Democracy through the Creation of a Public Petitioner"
Runner up CPE/GDL: Hannah Daly - "Innocent until proven guilty? Sexual offences and the anonymity of defendants"
Highly commended: Edward Dean - "Realising Education and Training 2020: a European Student Loan Repayment Facility"
Highly commended: Michal Hain - "Death as a Choice: in defence of assisted suicide"