Essay Prize

The Human Rights Law Essay Prize is awarded to the applicant who produces the most original contribution on the annual topic related to human rights law in Australia.

The recipient of the Human Rights Law Essay Prize will be selected by a judging panel appointed by the committee of the Human Rights Law Association. The winner will be announced close to Human Rights Week in December and will receive a prize of $1000.

  • 2024 topic: “It has been said that the success of domestic human rights instruments in protecting and promoting human rights depends on a robust human rights culture in the public sector. To what extent does the protection and promotion of human rights also depend on a human rights culture in the legal profession and how can such a culture be fostered in the legal profession in Australia?”

  • Closing date: 1 October 2024.

  • How to submit entry: Fill in the application form here and send it together with a Word or PDF copy of your paper to admin@hrla.net with the subject line ‘Human Rights Law Essay Prize submission’.

  • Entry requirements: To be eligible, the paper must be either unpublished or published in the current or previous calendar year. The word count must not exceed 8,000 words. Anyone who resides in Australia can apply – students, practitioners, academics and others.

  • The paper must be original. The Human Rights Law Essay Prize promotes freedom of expression for applicants, not other people or computers. If the judging panel reasonably suspects that a submitted paper includes plagiarised material or text generated by artificial intelligence (AI) software (including Chat GPT), the paper will be excluded from consideration.

  • Judging criteria: Each year, the judging panel will be looking for the paper that makes the most original contribution to the discipline of human rights law in Australia, addressed through the particular topic for that year. The judging criteria are: the originality of the contribution to human rights law, the relevance to the annual topic and how well the author expresses their ideas. All formats are welcome: blog-style opinion pieces through to law journal articles with footnotes.