12KBW and Thomson Reuters are delighted to collaborate in our annual essay competition focusing on questions of interest in tort law. The title for this year’s competition is:
In his dissenting judgment in Paul & Anor v Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust [2024] UKSC 1, Lord Burrows said:
“The common law has struggled to deal satisfactorily with negligently caused “pure” psychiatric illness (that is, psychiatric illness that is not consequential on physical injury to the claimant). In the context of secondary victims – who can be regarded, generally speaking, as those who suffer psychiatric illness as a result of another’s death or injury or imperilment – the tort of negligence draws distinctions that are difficult to defend. It is arguable that the only truly principled solution, which would avoid any arbitrary line drawing, would be to impose a duty of care where, in general terms, it was reasonably foreseeable that psychiatric illness would be caused to the secondary victim (as a person of reasonable fortitude).”
Should English law adopt this “principled solution”?
The competition is open to all students registered with UK educational institutions. The essays will be anonymised for judging. Essays should be no more than 1,000 words (including footnotes but not including the title) and will be accepted up until the deadline of midday on 28 October 2024.
The three winning entrants will be awarded cash prizes of £2,000 (1st prize), £1,250 (2nd prize), and £750 (3rd prize). The order of the top three essays will be judged by The Honourable Mr Justice Cotter, a High Court Judge specialising in tort law. The winners will be announced in early 2025.
All prize-winning essays will be published on the 12KBW website. The essay winning the 1st prize will be published on the Tort Law webpage of the Sweet & Maxwell website. The winners will also be offered the chance to undertake a mini-pupillage at 12KBW.
See the 2023 winners and 2022 winners.
Prizes
The prizes are as follow:
- 1st prize: £2,000
- 2nd prize: £1,250
- 3rd prize: £750
- The prize winners will be offered mini-pupillages at 12KBW to take place at a time convenient to both student and chambers.
Rules
- The title for this year’s competition is as specified on the main competition page.
- Essays should address this question and will be judged solely on the cogency, compellingness, and originality of the response.
- The competition is open to all students in any discipline registered with a UK educational institution on the date the essay is received by us.
- The deadline for entries to be submitted to the competition is midday on on 28 October 2024. Late entries will not be accepted. New versions of essay entries already submitted will not be accepted past the deadline.
- The word limit (including footnotes) is 1,000 words.
- 12 King’s Bench Walk and Thomson Reuters, the organisers, have the right to publish or reproduce at any time all or part of any essay entered for the awards.
- The essay must be the sole creation and original work of the entrant.
- The organisers reserve the right to delete or omit from any published article anything that in their absolute discretion should not be published on editorial or legal grounds.
- Only one entry per person will be allowed. All entries will be acknowledged but not returned.
- Essays should be submitted via our online application form below (typed and in Microsoft Word format only).
- The applicant’s name must not be included on the essay. The essays are kept anonymised for marking.
- Entrants cannot win more than one prize in any one year. The award of all or any of the prizes lies solely within the discretion of the judges appointed by the organisers. The judges’ decision will be final.
- The prizes are as follows:
- 1st prize: £2,000
- 2nd prize: £1,250
- 3rd prize: £750
- The organisers reserve the discretion to award different prizes than those advertised.
- Prize winners will be required to show proof of their eligibility to enter into the competition in the form of a student card or certificate of enrolment or otherwise.
- All prize-winning essays will be published on the 12KBW website. The essay winning the 1st prize will be published on the Tort Law webpage of the Sweet & Maxwell website.
- The prize winners will also be offered mini-pupillages at 12KBW to take place in that year at a time convenient to both student and chambers.
Personal Data
- Your personal data: We obtain your name and contact details, along with your submission information and the essay itself. This data is only processed for the administration of the essay competition as described below.
- Our purposes for processing your data: We will process your personal data for the purposes of administering this essay competition and (in the case of successful entrants) publicising and promoting future such competitions.
- Retention of your data: We will retain all entrants’ applications for one year after the competition deadline and will then delete them permanently. Successful entrants’ data will be retained after the deadline as follows: 1) winners’ names and entries will stay on our website to promote the competition, and 2) we may contact past winners to request (non-mandatory) participation in publicity materials.
- Should you have any questions about the use of your data as above, please contact data.protection@12kbw.co.uk.
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