Writing Competitions for Law Students

Sponsors/facilitators of student writing competitions provide more detailed instructions and rules at their websites.  Students need to review the information and rules available at these websites.  

American Bar Association Standing Committee on Armed Forces Law: Law Student Writing Contest + Official Rules

• Sponsor: American Bar Association Standing Committee on Armed Forces Law
• 2025 Competition Topic was: "Entries for the Writing Contest must focus on the military’s application of criminal law—also known as military justice.  Submissions may advocate a position, educate the reader, or analyze one or more cases.  The decision of whether a particular writing qualifies as to subject matter is entirely within the discretion of the Standing Committee on Armed Forces Law (SCAFL)."
• Submission requirements in 2025 Competition included: "All submissions must be the original written work of the law student entrant.  Submissions may include papers submitted for a law school course, law review notes and comments, a law school journal, or pieces written specifically for the Writing Contest.  The writing must be the work of the submitting student without substantial editorial input from others.  Co-authored papers are ineligible.  Failure to submit an original essay will result in disqualification and may result in the selection of a new winner.
  Only one written work, per competition, may be submitted by each entrant.  Submissions must be provided electronically in Microsoft Word. The text of the writing must be double-spaced, in 12-point font, and with one-inch margins; footnotes should be single-spaced, in 10-point font, and with one-inch margins.  Citations may be embedded in text or set out in footnotes and should conform to the current edition of The Bluebook—A Uniform System of Citation. Submissions may not exceed 14,000 total words including footnotes, but not including end-notes, the title page, and table of contents, if any.  Each page must have a header including the title of the paper and a page number.  For anonymous evaluation of the entries, no information that could identify the author should appear anywhere in the body of the paper, including in the header, footer, or document properties.  The ABA prohibits the use of all generative artificial intelligence, including large language models, to create any portion of a contestant’s written submission for this competition whether in the research, writing, or editing phase.  Generative AI in this context includes, but is not limited to, OpenAI’s “GPT” series, BLOOM, Jasper, BERT, Galactica, and Lex.  Note that for these purposes, AI does not include basic tools for checking grammar, spelling, references, etc.  By submitting work product as an entry in this competition, contestants are affirming that they did not utilize AI in the preparation of their written work product.  The ABA reserves the right to screen submissions for use of AI through an AI detector.  Contestants utilizing AI to generate their work product in whole or in part will be disqualified.  If it is determined after the winner is announced and the prize is awarded that the winning contestant utilized AI to generate the written submission in whole or in part, then the contestant will forfeit the winning designation and shall return the prize.  A new winner will then be selected."
• Eligibility requirements in 2025 Competition included: "The Writing Contest is open to law students who are, at the time of entry, (a) enrolled in an ABA-accredited law school and seeking a J.D. degree, (b) members of the ABA, (c) at least 21 years old, and (d) legal residents of the United States.  Directors, officers and employees of the ABA and their immediate family or household members are not eligible.  Only one entry per participant."
• Prize in 2025 Competition was: "The Writing Contest winner will be eligible to receive a framed certificate signed by the SCAFL Chair.  The SCAFL Chair will formally announce the winner at a SCAFL meeting at the ABA Midyear Meeting.  Attending the ABA Midyear Meeting will be at the winner’s expense.  The winner’s name will also be announced, and title of the written work will be posted on the SCAFL public website."
• Deadline for submission was: November 21, 2025. 

2025 National Security Law Writing Competition

• Sponsor: Air Force Judge Advocate General’s School
• 2025 Competition Topic was: Employing and Defending Against Drones in the Contemporary National Security Environment
• 2025 Competition Format requirements included: "Original and Previously Unpublished Papers" " Entries must be a minimum of 4,000 words and a maximum of 7,000 words, including footnotes"
• Eligibility requirements in 2025 Competition included: "The competition is open to all U.S. and international law school students and graduates."  "Members of the faculty of AFJAGS shall not participate in the contest or review any entry on behalf of an entrant."
• 2025 Competition Prizes were: First Place – Cash prize of $3,000; Second Place – Cash prize of $2,000; Third Place – Cash prize of $1,000.  "Winners are free to independently seek public publication in The JAG Reporter or a law review or journal of their choice.  AFJAGS will post the winning papers internally on the Knowledge Management section of FLITE."
• Deadline for submission was: November 21, 2025.