Terms & Rules

1. The Promoter

The Blackstone Law Review Competition (the "Competition") is organised and promoted by Quant Terminal LLC (the "Promoter"). The Competition is an independent academic initiative. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the University of Cambridge or any of its constituent colleges. Judges participate in a personal, volunteer capacity and not on behalf of any institution.

2. Free Entry & Late-Entry Fee

Entry is free. No purchase or payment of any kind is required to register, to submit by the standard deadline, or to win: the Competition is a contest of skill, winners are selected solely on the merit of their written work by a judging panel, and no element of chance is involved. Void where prohibited by law.

One optional charge exists: a paper submitted during the late-entry window (after the standard deadline of 31 March 2027 and by 10 April 2027) incurs a £15 late-entry administration fee. The fee does not affect judging in any way; late papers are marked identically. The fee is payable as directed at submission, is non-refundable once the late paper has been accepted for judging, and an unpaid fee may result in the late entry being excluded.

3. Eligibility

• Junior Division: secondary/high school students worldwide (Year 12–13 in the UK, or high school juniors and seniors internationally).
• Senior Division: current undergraduate students of law, humanities, or social sciences at any institution worldwide.
• Entrants must be at least 13 years old at the time of registration. Entrants under 18 must have the consent of a parent or legal guardian to register and participate.
• One entry per person. Each entrant may register once and submit one paper (resubmission before the applicable deadline replaces the previous version).
• Individuals connected to the organisation or judging of the Competition, and their immediate families, may not enter.
• The Competition is not open to entrants in jurisdictions where participation or prize payment would be prohibited by law or by applicable sanctions.

4. Format & Key Dates

The Competition is a closed-universe law review competition built around a single case packet — a fictional legal dispute together with the statutes, regulations, opinions, and factual record needed to resolve it. The packet is available in the Competition Portal from registration, entrants write at home on their own schedule, and papers are submitted through the Portal by the deadline. No prior legal knowledge is required.

• Registration opens: 1 September 2026
• Case packet: available in the Competition Portal from the moment you register
• Registration closes: 31 January 2027
• Submission deadline: 31 March 2027, 11:59 PM BST (free)
• Late-entry deadline: 10 April 2027, 11:59 PM BST (£15 late-entry fee; see Section 2)
• Shortlist announced: 1 June 2027 (the top 20%, with graded awards)
• Grand Prize winners announced: August 2027, at the Blackstone Symposium

No papers are accepted after the late-entry deadline for any reason. The Promoter may adjust dates for operational reasons; any change will be announced on this website in advance and applies to all entrants equally.

5. Submission Requirements

• 2,500–3,000 words, excluding footnotes. Concision is part of the assessment: papers are marked on the ability to argue fully within the limit, without redundancy.
• Consistent use of Bluebook citation style; citation accuracy forms part of the score.
• PDF format, maximum 10 MB, submitted through the Competition Portal by the applicable deadline. The latest upload is the entry of record.
• The paper must address the dispute presented in the official case packet.
• The paper must be written in English.
• Anonymity: no identifying information (name, school, age, or country) may appear anywhere in the document. The entrant's Registration ID must appear in the header of every page. Papers that breach anonymity may be disqualified.

6. Closed Universe, Originality & Academic Integrity

• Closed universe: papers may rely only on the materials contained in the official case packet. Conducting outside research, citing authority not in the packet, or collaborating with any other person are each grounds for disqualification.
• The paper must be entirely the entrant's own original work.
• Papers are screened using plagiarism-detection and AI-detection software.
• The use of artificial-intelligence tools in any capacity — including drafting, outlining, rewriting, editing, or summarising the packet — is prohibited and results in immediate disqualification. All entries are screened with plagiarism- and AI-detection software.

7. Judging

• Papers are judged double-blind by a volunteer panel of law professors, postgraduates, and graduates, identified to entrants after the results are announced. Each paper is marked by at least two judges.
• Papers are scored against the published rubric — legal reasoning, depth of analysis, organisation and structure, writing quality, and citation accuracy, in that order of importance.
• All papers are read and ranked together across the whole field. Late entries are judged identically to on-time entries. The judges' and the Promoter's decisions are final, and no correspondence will be entered into regarding individual results.

8. Prizes & Awards

The top 20% of the field are shortlisted, and every shortlisted entrant receives a graded award evidenced by an official certificate:

• Grand Prizes — the top three papers overall: First £500, Second £250, Third £100. All three Grand Prize papers are published in The Blackstone Law Review, and their authors are invited to a private virtual masterclass with the editorial board.
• High Distinction: papers ranked in the top 5% of the field.
• Distinction: papers ranked in the top 10%.
• Honorable Mention: papers ranked in the top 15%.
• Academic Recognition: all remaining shortlisted papers (top 20%).

Cash prizes may be paid in the winner's local currency at the prevailing exchange rate, via bank transfer or an equivalent method. At the winner's request, a cash prize may instead be paid directly to their school, college, or university and applied to tuition or fees — an option, never a condition, which does not change the amount awarded. Prizes for winners under 18 are paid to a parent or legal guardian, or to the institution under the option above. Winners are responsible for any taxes applicable in their jurisdiction, and the Promoter may require completion of tax documentation (e.g. IRS Form W-9/W-8) before payment. No cash alternative is offered for non-cash elements of a prize, which are non-transferable.

9. Publication & Intellectual Property

Copyright. Entrants retain copyright in their papers at all times. By entering, each entrant grants the Promoter a perpetual, non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to publish, reproduce, and display their entry (in print and online) in connection with the Competition and The Blackstone Law Review, with attribution. Because the licence is non-exclusive, authors remain free to use their own work.

Which papers are published. Publication in The Blackstone Law Review is planned for the three Grand Prize papers, and may be offered to other shortlisted papers at the editors' discretion. Acceptance of a Grand Prize includes agreement to publication of the paper; an author who declines publication may be asked to accept an alternative award so the Grand Prize can pass to the next-ranked paper. Publication of a paper is separate from publication of a name: entrants' names appear only with their consent (and a parent or guardian's consent for entrants under 18); otherwise attribution uses the Registration ID.

Editing. Published papers receive copy-editing (typography, citation form, house style) which does not require approval. Any edit that changes substance — an argument, a conclusion, or a characterisation of authority — is made only with the author's agreement. Authors see a proof before publication.

Republication elsewhere. After a paper first appears in The Blackstone Law Review, the author may republish it anywhere (a personal site, another journal, an application portfolio), and is asked to note that it was first published in The Blackstone Law Review.

Removal. The Promoter may decline to publish, or may remove a published paper, where a breach of these Terms (including the academic-integrity rules in Section 6) is discovered after judging or publication, or where removal is required for legal reasons. Associated awards may be withdrawn under Section 10 in such cases.

Timing. The inaugural edition is expected to be published alongside the Blackstone Symposium in August 2027, with reasonable allowance for editorial schedules.

10. Disqualification

The Promoter may disqualify any entry that breaches these terms, including breaches of anonymity, originality, eligibility, or the one-entry rule, and may withhold prizes where fewer entries of sufficient merit are received than there are Grand Prizes — in which case any unawarded prize will be clearly announced.

11. Personal Data

Registration details are processed as described in the Privacy Policy, solely to administer the Competition.

12. General

The Promoter may amend these terms where necessary for legal or operational reasons; material changes will be announced on this website and will not disadvantage existing entrants. By registering, entrants confirm they have read and accepted these terms.