Our Organisation
A small, independent initiative with one conviction: serious legal writing should be open to students everywhere — free, fairly judged, and worth publishing.
What this is
The Blackstone Law Review Competition is an international legal-writing competition for secondary-school and undergraduate students, organised by Quant Terminal LLC, a U.S.-registered company. It was founded in 2026 by Max Chen, a university student, after noticing a gap: moot court trains speaking and mock trial trains procedure, but no competition below law school trains the skill law schools and law reviews actually select for — rigorous written legal analysis.
We are an independent academic initiative. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the University of Cambridge or any of its constituent colleges. Judges take part in a personal, volunteer capacity, not on behalf of any institution.
The team
We are deliberately small: a founder-organiser supported by a volunteer team covering operations, editorial, outreach, and — during the judging window — the reading panel. Nobody is paid a salary; the money goes to prizes and running costs. We would rather be a small operation that keeps every promise than a large one that keeps most of them.
How the judging panel is selected
- Panel members are recruited by invitation: law professors, postgraduates, and graduates — with legal-writing teaching experience preferred — invited on the basis of their published academic or professional background.
- Every judge marks against the published rubric, and every paper is read independently by at least two judges. Judging is double-blind: judges never see names, schools, or countries — only Registration IDs.
- Judges declare conflicts of interest and are recused from any paper they could plausibly identify. Entrants may not select, contact, or lobby judges; every question goes to the organisers.
- The panel is announced on this site after results are published, with each member's consent — after, not before, so the panel cannot be lobbied during the cycle.
How the competition is funded
The first cycle is funded by the organiser. Entry is free and will remain free; the only charge that exists anywhere is the optional £15 late-entry fee. If sponsors join, they will be acknowledged transparently on this site — sponsorship buys goodwill and a line of thanks, never influence over judging, results, or publication.
What we promise
- Free entry — no fee to enter, submit, or win.
- Blind judging — papers carry Registration IDs only, marked by at least two independent readers.
- A published rubric — nothing about how you are marked is a secret.
- Your data stays yours — we collect the minimum, never sell it, and publish results by Registration ID unless you consent to your name. See the Privacy Policy.
- Plain honesty — this is our first cycle, and we say so.
Contact
Questions, school partnerships, press, or judging enquiries: [email protected]. Entrants should use the email address they registered with, so we can verify the account. Transactional messages (Registration IDs, receipts, announcements) come from [email protected] — add it to your contacts so nothing lands in spam.