2011 NZLawyer Student Writing Prize

The NZLawyer Student Writing Prize rewards legal research and writing excellence by New Zealand undergraduate law students.

There is a $1,500 first prize for the best, original, unpublished essay or opinion on any legal topic that has previously been submitted and graded for credit in any elective legal course at a New Zealand law school. The runner-up will receive $500, and the second runner-up a collection of essential legal texts.

The top three essays, as decided by the judging panel, were published in extracted form in the August 2011  issue of student publication NZLawyer2B and in subsequent issues of NZLawyer (read by more than 10,000 lawyers, judges, politicians and others linked the legal profession), and in full on the NZLawyer website, and the winning essay will be published in NZLawyer, which is read by more than 10,000 lawyers, judges, politicians and other linked to the legal profession, throughout New Zealand.

Read the 2011 rules.

In 2011, the four judges were looking for essays that went beyond academic study to focus on a relevant, topical legal issue that would be interesting and useful for working lawyers. We found that with the clear winner, “Relocation – whose interests should be paramount?”, by University of Canterbury law student Jasmine Smart, which addressed the complex issue of child relocation, and the merits of enacting new relocation-specific legislative guidelines.

Second place went to University of Auckland law student Gillian Gillies, whose article “The ‘Who’ Question – examining the possibilities of a right of group privacy” considered whether the concept of privacy is inherently limited to individuals or whether organisations, including companies, can have privacy rights. 

Coming in third was University of Otago law student Grace Boos, with an article addressing a widespread problem permeating society here in New Zealand and around the world: “Domestic Violence: can international law provide a remedy when the state fails to protect victims?”

2010 NZLawyer Student Writing Prize

The NZLawyer Student Writing Prize was launched in 2010. The Writing Prize rewards legal research and writing excellence by New Zealand undergraduate law students.

There was a $1,500 first prize for the best, original, unpublished essay or opinion on any legal topic that has previously been submitted and graded for credit in any elective legal course at a New Zealand law school. When it comes to the judging of entries, practical relevance is one of the key criteria. The NZLawyer Student Writing Prize rewards essays and opinions that go beyond academic study to focus on a relevant and topical issue of interest and use to the wider legal profession. The best entries will also be written in a style that easily communicates the law to lawyers and non-lawyers alike.

Susannah Shaw, a student at student at Victoria University of Wellington’s Faculty of Law, won the inaugural NZLawyer Student Writing Prize for her essay on judicial recusal. The panel of judges was particularly impressed by Shaw’s clear understanding of the issues involved with judicial recusal, in particular the situation in respect of then Supreme Court judge Justice Bill Wilson. You can read Shaw's prize-winning entry here.

Last year’s runner-up, Stephen Rivers-McCombs of Victoria University of Wellington, submitted a very interesting article on the effects of the legal changes on the seabed and foreshore, comparing the proposed New Zealand regime to that currently determining Australia’s indigenous land rights. 

Third place-getter, University of Waikato law student Maria Collett-Bevan, looked at the impact of the GFC on corporate governance, and the legal tools that are being introduced to assist businesses to comply with governance obligations.