LSCA/Center for Climate Integrity 2024 Writing Competition Now Open

The Student Prize for Emerging Theories of Climate Accountability

The Center for Climate Integrity (CCI) and Law Students for Climate Accountability (LSCA) are pleased to announce a call for submissions for the second annual Student Prize for Emerging Theories of Climate Accountability, to be awarded to an original academic paper written by a current law or graduate student describing a new or emerging legal theory related to climate change and corporate accountability.

The winning paper, as decided by a panel of legal experts, will be awarded a $2,000 cash prize and published in a law journal to be announced. Three honorable mentions will also be awarded. The deadline for submissions is April 19, 2024.

About the Competition

Big oil and gas companies learned decades ago that burning fossil fuels would lead
to "catastrophic" climate change. Instead of informing the public and policy-makers, they masterminded a decades-long, multimillion dollar climate denial, disinformation, and deception campaign to delay climate action and protect their profits. Now, climate-driven extreme weather events are placing people in grave harm and communities are paying billions to adapt to and recover from the growing climate damages the fossil fuel industry knowingly caused.

The Center for Climate Integrity (CCI) and Law Students for Climate Accountability (LSCA) endeavor to support students interested in joining the community of lawyers and professionals seeking to hold corporate polluters accountable for their contributions to climate change.

Rules and Requirements

To be considered, submitted papers must pertain to corporate accountability and climate change, with a particular focus on new or unexplored theories of liability for holding corporate actors accountable in U.S. courts for the role they have played – and continue to play – in causing and contributing to the climate crisis. The paper should be original and scholarly. It should be appropriately annotated with footnotes to reflect the authorities upon which the author relies, and which support the author’s conclusions and findings. Authors are encouraged to follow the citation style of The Bluebook.

Prizes

The author of the winning paper will receive:

• A $2,000 cash prize

• The opportunity to have their paper published in a law journal to be announced

• An invitation to present their paper to members of the climate law community

Up to three honorable mentions will each receive:

• A $500 cash prize

• The opportunity to publish their paper on the Center for Climate Integrity’s website, climateintegrity.org

LSCA and the Center for Climate Integrity may work with select authors in continuing their work in this field where additional opportunities are available. LSCA may also reach out to authors of non-winning pieces about publishing a shortened version of their piece on the LSCA blog, if desired.

Eligibility

To be eligible for consideration, the paper must be written solely by a student enrolled in law or graduate school at the time the author submits a paper to this Competition, or who graduated in December 2023. Law students who have just finished their first year are invited to submit entries. Papers authored by more than one person will not be considered.

Submission Guidelines

To enter, please submit your paper to studentprize@climateintegrity.org no later than midnight Eastern Time on April 19, 2024.

Note: Students are encouraged to email the judges at any point before the submission deadline to ask questions, seek clarifications, and discuss their paper.

Submissions must be accompanied by a cover letter verifying the author’s current law or graduate school enrollment, and authorizing publication on CCI’s website and in a legal publication to be determined by CCI and LSCA.

• Papers should be between 4,500 and 10,000 words in length.

• Submission files should be submitted as a Microsoft Word document and the

  file should be titled “StudentPrize_[LAST NAME]_[TITLE].”

• The text of the document should be in double-spaced Times New Roman 12-point font with 1-inch margins.

• Footnotes should be single-spaced 10-point Times New Roman font.

• Submissions must include a footer with the title and page number.

Judging

The papers will be judged by a panel of legal and scholarly experts who will evaluate the papers on their originality, depth of legal analysis, thoroughness of research, quality of writing, and relevance to the development of U.S. climate change jurisprudence. The decision of the judges is final. CCI and LSCA reserve the right not to award one or more of the listed prizes, if, in the sole opinion of the judges, the papers submitted do not meet their standards.

Winners will be announced in June 2024.