Essay Competition
The Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law organises an annual essay competition in the field of animal rights law. The aim of this competition is to encourage students to explore the fascinating questions that animals rights raise, and to discuss these questions in an original piece of writing that may inspire them to engage further with the topic in the future.
Our Essay Competition is made possible through the generous support of our donors: lead sponsor is the Jeremy Coller Foundation, the prizes are sponsored by the International Society for Animal Rights (ISAR), and additional sponsorship for the Centre is by the Brooks Institute for Animal Rights Law & Policy.
Essay Competition 2024 (entries now closed)
The winners for the Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law’s fourth Animal Rights Law Essay Competition will be announced by early-April 2024. Winning entries will be uploaded to our website. This year, we invited essays on the title:
“Whether autonomous, nonhuman animals have rights that ought to be ‘recognized by law’ is precisely the question [courts] are called upon to answer ... The immensity of that question does not place it exclusively within the domain of the legislature”. Discuss
Taken from the judgement of Judge Jenny Rivera, New York Court of Appeals, in Nonhuman Rights Project (Happy) v James Breheny, No 52, 14 June 2022
The competition has two categories: one for university students and one for secondary school (high school) students.
University students
This category is for anyone who has started or completed an undergraduate or postgraduate degree programme but who has not completed a doctoral degree. We welcome essays that are not longer than 3,000 words (including footnotes but excluding bibliography). Three prizes will be awarded in this section. The winning essay will be awarded £750, £500 will go to the second place, and £250 to the third-place winner. Entrants can approach the essay question from various perspectives and are not limited to a legal perspective, but entries must address the question. Only one entry is permitted per person. The deadline for submissions was 4 March 2024.
Secondary school students
This category is for anyone who has not started an undergraduate degree at a university (ie anyone who is at high school, college, or similar). We welcome essays that are not longer than 1,000 words. A Winning Commendation and up to two Special Commendations will be sent to the winners in this category, and prizes of £250 will be sent to the winners’ schools. Entrants can approach the essay question from various perspectives and are not limited to a legal perspective, but entries must address the question (hint: the question could be answered by exploring the appropriate place - courts or legislature - for law reform). Only one entry is permitted per person. The deadline for submissions was 4 March 2024.
The winners will be announced by early-April 2024. Winning entries will be uploaded to our website.
Essay Competition 2023
The third Animal Rights Law Essay Competition was on the question:
Richard Ryder once wrote: “Since Darwin, scientists have agreed that there is no ‘magical’ essential difference between human and other animals, biologically-speaking. Why then do we make an almost total distinction morally?” Assuming that is correct, how does this affect the arguments for and against animal rights laws?
The competition had two categories: one for university students and one for secondary school students.
The winners of the university student category are:
First place: Daniel Clark (Writer and translator), ‘The Marvellous Matadero’. Mr Clark won £750.
Watch this conversation our Centre had with Daniel Clark in which he reflects on his essay:
Listen to an audio recording of ‘The Marvellous Matadero’ on SoundCloud and here:
Second place: Francesca Jackson (LLM student, Lancaster University), ‘Richard Ryder once wrote…’. Ms Jackson won £500.
Watch this conversation our Centre had with Francesca Jackson on her essay:
Third place: Jessica Tselepy (LLM student, Lewis & Clark Law School), ‘Made in “Our Likeness”: The Impact of Darwin’s ‘Similarities-Point’ in modern Animal Rights Law’. Ms Tselepy won £250.
Watch this conversation our Centre had with Jessica Tselepy on her essay:
In the secondary school student category, we awarded a Winning Commendation and two Special Commendations. The schools of those who were awarded a Commendation received prizes of £250.
Past competitions
Essay Competition 2022
Our competition title in 2022 was: Imagine the world 50 years from now. Describe what you think the laws governing animals will look like and what will have influenced society in reaching that point.
The competition had two categories: one for university students and one for secondary school students. The winning essays from the university student category are:
First place: Elien Verniers (PhD candidate, University of Ghent), ‘A New Era on the Horizon: From Anthropocene to Symbiocene’. Ms Verniers won £750 — our first prize kindly sponsored by the International Society for Animal Rights (ISAR).
Second place: Francesca Jackson (LLB student, Lancaster University), ‘Imagine the World 50 Years from Now’. Ms Jackson won £500.
Third place: Ashleigh Best (PhD candidate, Melbourne Law School), ‘Foregrounding Embodied Vulnerability and Human-Animal Relationality: How the Disasters of the Anthropocene Promise to Transform Animals’ Property Status’. Ms Best won £250.
You can read the essays by clicking on the links above.
In the secondary school student category, we awarded a Winning Commendation and two Special Commendations. The schools of those who were awarded a Commendation received prizes of £250.
Our Essay Competition was made possible through lead sponsorship by the Jeremy Coller Foundation and sponsorship by the Brooks Institute for Animal Rights Law & Policy. The first prize in the university category was sponsored by the International Society for Animal Rights (ISAR).
Essay Competition 2021
Our first competition title followed in the footsteps of the competition run in 1795 by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, when the question was: Anne liceat invitos in servitutem dare? (“Is it lawful to enslave the unconsenting?”). The competition was won by Thomas Clarkson, setting him on a course to become one of the leading English abolitionists. Our Centre invited essays on the same question: Is it lawful to enslave the unconsenting?
The winning essays were:
First place: Katharina Braun (PhD candidate, Free University of Berlin), ‘Consent, Animals, and the Other’. Ms Braun won £750 — our first prize kindly sponsored by the International Society for Animal Rights (ISAR).
Second place: Juan Fuente Bravo (SJD candidate, Central European University), ‘Animals as Subjects’. Mr Fuente Bravo won £500.
Third place: Katja Tiisala (Master’s student, University of Helsinki), ‘Is It Lawful to Enslave the Unconsenting?’. Ms Tiisala won £250.
You can read the essays by clicking on the links above.
We have also received a number of impressive essays from high school students, to whom we have awarded a certificate to commend them for their participation and work.