Fourth Annual International Writing Competition (2020-2021)

Innovative Legal Issues Likely to Arise from Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things

^{September 24, 2020}

The Center for Legal & Court Technology (CLCT) is excited to announce that its annual Artificial Intelligence Writing Competition is now live! This popular competition is in its fourth year and CLCT looks forward to receiving the submissions, by the new deadline of February 7, 2021.

All current law students* worldwide are cordially invited to submit one paper, which must:

Present an interesting issue posed by these technologies;
Explain why it likely will arise and to what degree; and,
Analyze whether it can be resolved by the application of existing law.

A submission is not required to put forward a solution to the issue; however, any novel, plausible and well-articulated proposals are likely to impress the judges.

Judges will select the best entries that creatively address these criteria. Prizes will be awarded as follows:

First place: U.S. $2,500
Second place: U.S. $1,500
Third place: U.S. $1,000

The winners will also have the unique opportunity of presenting their papers to a selected audience of executives from Cisco Systems, Inc.

We encourage students from diverse backgrounds to participate!

For further details, as well as terms and conditions, please read the Rules. For any questions, please email us on essaycompetition@lists.wm.edu.

* Please see Section 1, “Participants’ Eligibility,” of the Rules for further explanation and exceptions.

^{Cisco Systems, Inc., (“CISCO”) has generously funded a grant for CLCT to educate lawyers and judges in the United States, the European Union, and Canada on the types of issues that can be expected to grow out of Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things. The goal of the Competition is to ignite interest in and dialogue with law students as future members of the legal profession on the type of issues that can be expected to grow out of emerging technologies. We believe that the forthcoming generations of judges and lawyers can be more creative, flexible, and resourceful in anticipating and coping with these emerging legal issues if they engage with them during their legal education. At the same time, we hope that the Competition will act as a form of crowdsourcing so that judges, lawyers, and law students will have a better idea of the challenges we will soon face.}