The 2009 Essay Writing Competition attracted high-quality jurisprudential papers from every state of Australia making shortlisting and judging a competitive process. But, as announced at the ALPSA Launch Event, we have our winners! They are as follows:

Congratulations to NICOLAS ELIAS (Juris Doctor, University of Melbourne), who's essay entitled "Law's claim to Ethical Responsibility: The Law and Morality of Torture" was awarded the first place prize of $300.

Second place was awarded to THOMAS GRAHAM (Final Year Undergraduate, University of Melbourne) with "Securities Related Litigation in the People's Republic of China" winning $150.

LIZ KOFOED's (Juris Doctor, University of Melbourne) essay "The Relationship between Technical and Aspirational Aspects of Law Pertaining to the Figure of the Refugee" won third place and $50.

We sincerely appreciate the time our Judges, the Hon. Justice PA Keane (Qld Court of Appeal), Prof. Wilfrid Prest (University of Adelaide) and Prof. Woljiech Sadurski (University of Sydney), generously gave to consider the shortlisted essays; without their distinguished opinions this competition would not have been possible. Thank-you to all of the contestants who put aside their time to get another essay together alongside their assignments! And, we extend our gratitude to the University of Queensland who donated the $500 prize money.

ALPSA 2009 LAUNCH EVENT

Come along to a free talk on the topic 'The Growth of Legislative Activity: Challenges & Implications', with:

The Hon. Justice Fraser
(Queensland Court of Appeal)
Mr Ian Davis
(Queensland Law Reform Commission)
Professor Suri Ratnapala
(TC Beirne School of Law)

Date: May 6th
Time: 6-7 pm
Cost: Free
Location: Banco Court, Supreme Court Complex (George Street, Brisbane)

RSVP to australianlpsa@gmail.com

Practitioners may claim 1 CPD point for attendance

Hope to see you all there!

2009 ALPSA National Essay Competition Rules

1. By submitting their essay to the ALPSA National Essay Competition (“the Competition”), entrants agree to be bound by the 2009 ALPSA National Essay Competition Rules (“the Rules”).
2. The Competition closes Tuesday 31 March 2009 at 5pm Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST) – for your information please visit http://www.australia.gov.au/Time, which explains AEST. Essays submitted late may or may not be considered, which decision is wholly at the discretion of ALPSA’s Executive.
3. Entrants must submit their essays in Microsoft Word format by email to australianlpsa@gmail.com. The email should detail the entrant’s full name, preferred email address, contact number, current university study (program of study and name of institution), postal address, and the word count of the essay.
4. The essay must be written and submitted by a person currently enrolled in an undergraduate or postgraduate level program at an Australian university.
5. Entrants may not submit essays which have previously been published or are currently being considered for publication, or essays which have previously won prizes or awards in academic competitions.
6. Entrants may not submit more then one essay.
7. The submitted essay must be between 2000 and 8000 words in length. Word count excludes footnotes, unless footnotes include substantive essay content.
8. Entrants must be the original author of their submitted essay. All non-original material and sources must be referenced in accordance with general academic standards. Failure to reference or cite non-original material may be considered plagiarism. Entrants may use any generally accepted academic referencing standard, such as the Australian Guide to Legal Citation or Harvard Referencing. The Executive reserves the discretion to report instances of plagiarism to any affected or interested parties.
9. Submitted essays will be shortlisted and judged according to the following criteria: Quality of legal philosophical discussion and argument, including knowledge and synthesis of information, innovation and articulation of argument, and structure of analysis; Academic quality, including choice and application of formatting and referencing style, clear and correct spelling and grammar.
10. The 2009 ALPSA Executive (“the Executive”) will read all submitted essays and determine a shortlist. It is anticipated that entrants will be notified by email of which essays have been shortlisted.
11. Shortlisted essays will be judged by the Honourable Justice PA Keane, Professor Wojciech Sadurski and Professor Emeritus Wilfrid Prest. It is anticipated that entrants will be notified by email or phone of which essays have placed first, second and third.
12. First place will win $300, second place will win $150, and third place will win $50.
13. Entrants give the Executive licence over the submitted essay as is reasonably necessary for the conduct of the Competition. This licence includes permission to make and distribute copies between members of the Executive and the Judges for short-listing and judging processes, reproducing entry details and excerpts in ALPSA publications, and keeping copies of submitted essays as archival records.
14. The Executive may exclude an essay from the Competition for a breach of these rules or for conduct deemed contrary to the spirit of the Competition. At their discretion the Executive may notify an entrant by email or phone if their essay has been excluded from the Competition.
15. All decisions of the judges and the ALPSA Executive are final. No appeals will be heard. The Competitions Convenor has discretion to vary the Competition Rules.

2009 ALPSA National Essay Competition

The 2009 ALPSA National Essay Competition is your chance to polish an old assignment into a paper that showcases your ability to discuss the complexities of legal philosophy shrouding a historical or controversial topic of your choosing.

If shortlisted your essay will be judged by an eminent and diverse panel consisting of the Honourable Justice PA Keane (Queensland Court of Appeal), Professor Wojciech Sadurski (Sydney Law School) and Professor Emeritus Wilfrid Prest (University of Adelaide Law School).

Instead of just gathering dust, your assignment could win 1st place and $300 of the cash prize money generously provided by the University of Queensland, whilst 2nd will receive $150 and 3rd $50.

Entries are open to undergraduates from around Australia, whether you are studying law, philosophy or international relations, to submit unpublished essays between 2000 and 8000 words long.

Please submit your paper by 5pm on Tuesday 31 March to australianlpsa@gmail.com!

If you have any questions or need more information, please comment on this blog entry (as others may have a similar query), or email Michelle Delport (ALPSA Competitions Convenor) at australianlpsa@gmail.com.

ALPSA AGM Thursday 20 November - Call for Nominations

ALPSA will be having its Annual General Meeting on Thursday 20 November at 6.30 pm, to be held in the Moot Court at UQ's St Lucia Campus.

Nominations are invited from all interested parties; prior membership or involvement with ALPSA is not a requirement. The positions available are:

• President
• Treasurer
• Secretary
• Competition Convener
• Public Relations Officer
• Officer without portfolio

If there is more than one nomination for a position (excluding President, Treasurer or Secretary), the Meeting may allow two people to jointly hold the position.

We encourage all to get involved- anyone who is interested is more than welcome to play a role in ALPSA for 2009. Nominations should be sent to alpsa2008@gmail.com - simply include your name and a contact phone number, as well as which position you intend to stand for.

Nominations should be submitted as soon as possible, but may be made from the floor at the meeting. Please feel free to contact us at alpsa2008@gmail.com if you have any questions or queries.

See you on Thursday!

ALPSA Annual Report in UQLS Res Ipsa Magazine

See here for the UQLS yearbook, Res Ipsa, which contains a report on ALPSA's year in 2008.

ALPSA Moot

Congratulations to all the teams that participated in the ALPSA 2008 Legal Philosophy Moot in late September this year.

The moot was based on the problem of the Speluncean Explorers written by Lon Fuller, and required teams to consider philosophical and jurisprudential issues. Judges from UQ, QUT and
Griffith put teams to the test, raising issues that ranged from questions of criminal procedure to the nature of the social contract.

Teams competed in three rounds of competition, and a team of UQ mooters comprising Chris Curtis, Michelle Delport and Edmund Robinson ultimately won the Grand Final, which was judged by the rather intimidating panel of Professor Ratnapala, Dr Crowe & Acting Judge John Devereaux SC.

Runners-up in the Final were Louise Young and Luke Gamble of QUT, with Louise winning the Best Speaker Prize for both the General Rounds and the Grand Final.

Thanks to all the teams that participated, as well as the following judges of the general rounds:
Associate Professor William MacNeil (Griffith University), Dr Nick James (UQ), Mark Thomas (QUT), Professor Jim Allan (UQ), Dr Francesca Bartlett (UQ) and Ryan Goss.

ALPSA Moot Final this Sunday

You are invited to attend the final of the ALPSA Moot, Sunday 28 September at 2.00pm in the UQ Moot Court.

Teams from UQ and QUT will be competing over the course of Saturday and Sunday to secure a place in the Final, in moots judged by lecturers from UQ, QUT and Griffith University.

The topic of the moot is an appeal from the fictional Case of the Speluncean Explorers, which raises the question of whether it is ever justifiable to kill another person. The moot is somewhat unusual in that it does not emphasise extensive research and reliance on authority, but instead requires teams to engage in sophisticated legal and philosophical analysis.

The moot will be judged by Professor Suri Ratnapala and Dr Jonathon Crowe of the University of Queensland, and his Honour Brian Devereaux SC who is an Acting Judge of the District Court, and formerly Legal Aid Queensland's Public Defender. We invite you to attend the Moot and the brief presentation of awards immediately afterwards.

We hope to see you there- no registration is required.

Reminder: Shoah Discussion Tonight

This is a reminder that the Shoah discussion panel will be held tonight (September 15) in the Moot Court at the University of Queensland's St Lucia Campus.

Thanks to the UQ Law School for posting an item about the discussion. See here for all the details.

Shoah Discussion Panel: The Legal, Ethical and Philosophical Implications of the Holocaust

ALPSA is pleased to invite you to participate in an interactive panel discussion on the legal, ethical and philosophical implications of the Holocaust. We hope that the discussion will generate some interesting and lively debate. The discussion will be preceded by a brief viewing of a 20-30 minute extract from Claude Lanzmann's landmark film, Shoah, which features footage and testimony from victims, bystanders and perpetrators of the Holocaust.

Time: 6.30pm
Date: Monday 15th September
Venue: Moot Court, University of Queensland Law Library

The three panellists who will participate in the discussion are:

Dr. Jonothan Crowe, Senior Lecturer in Legal Philosophy (UQ)
Dr. Anthony Cassimatis, Senior Lecturer in International Law (UQ)
Dr. Marguerite La Caze, Lecturer in European Philosophy and Ethics (UQ)

This event is FREE and open to all.

Links on the ALPSA Moot

The UQLS has kindly posted an item about the ALPSA moot here.

UQ's TC Beirne School of Law has a news item about the moot here.

QUT's Law Society, QUOTALS, has posted an item about the moot here.

Registration for ALPSA moot extended to August 29 2008

Registration for the ALPSA moot is extended til Friday August 29.

Email your registration to alpsa2008 [no spam] at gmail dot com.

Announcement: ALPSA MOOT- Call for Entries

LEGAL PHILOSOPHY MOOT

TOPIC: The Fictional Case of the Speluncean Explorers, which raises the philosophical question of whether it is ever appropriate to kill another person in order to aid your own survival http://www.nullapoena.de/stud/explorers.html

The Legal Philosophy Moot involves:
• Brief written submissions appealing the case, and defending it

• A focus on legal reasoning, not reading cases

• Teams of three

§ QUESTIONS & ENTRIES: contact alpsa2008@gmail.com
§ More info: http://alpsa-alpsa.blogspot.com/
§ Location: The University of Queensland, St Lucia Campus

RELEVANT DATES
§ Registration opens: 31 JULY 2008 (alpsa2008@gmail.com)
§ Registration closes: 15 AUGUST 2008 (alpsa2008@gmail.com)
§ Written submissions: 20 SEPTEMBER 2008 (alpsa2008@gmail.com)
§ MOOT DATES: 27-28 SEPTEMBER 2008

More on the topic
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court of Newgarth heard The Case of the Speluncean Explorers. The decision of the court to convict (and therefore execute, as mandated by Newgarth law) the surviving explorers has been the subject of considerable public debate. There are strong supporters of the decision, as well as those who think that the decision was an abomination of justice. Bowing to public pressure, the Chief Executive stayed the execution which was scheduled for Friday April 2 of this year, 4300. The Chief Executive has convened an Executive Clemency Board to hear a final appeal on the matter. The Executive Clemency Board will be prepared to listen to legal argument, jurisprudential reasoning, and general philosophical argument made persuasively. As Newgarth is a common law country, the Board will treat decisions from other common law counties as persuasive – if their reasoning is persuasive – but not binding. You must prepare written & oral submissions appealing & defending the decision.

ALPSA 2007 National Essay Competition Summary

Earlier this year we announced the results of the 2007 ALPSA National Essay Competition. Entries will be opening in the latter part of this year for the 2008 ALPSA National Essay Competition.

The standard of competition in the 2007 ALPSA National Essay Competition was very high, with entries up four-fold from 2006. In light of this, we released an extended results list, and we have awarded three Highly Commended certificates in addition to the three prize places.

The judges of the competition were: Justice Keane of the Queensland Court of Appeal; Professor Peter Cane of the Australian National University Law Faculty, and Dr Marguerite La Caze, a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Queensland .

It is my pleasure to announce the results:

1st Place: Graeme Karstaedt, University of Western Australia
2nd Place: Nora Gotzmann, University of Queensland
3rd Place: Ben Bertoldi, University of Queensland

Highly Commended:
Raphael de Vietri, University of Western Australia
Jessica Panegyres, University of Western Australia
Penelope Scott, University of New England

ALPSA Officers

All ALPSA Officers may be contacted at the alpsa email address. However, so you know who you're talking to, the ALPSA Board consists of

President- Caitlin Goss
Treasurer: Michael Wells
Secretary- Andy Gian
Public relations- Angus O'Brien & Anthony Bremner
Competitions convenors: Brett Le Plastrier & Matthew Doyle
Officer- Rob Mullins

Welcome to the Australian Legal Philosophy Students' Association!

The Australian Legal Philosophy Students' Association is dedicated to the promotion and discussion of legal philosophy, ethics, and related issues, amongst students, academics, and members of the legal profession. Basically, we host lectures, debates, and competitions: so if you couldn't get enough of Suri in Legal Theory, or you want to debate about the Spelunkean explorers or feminist jurisprudence, ALPSA is for you.

What ALPSA does

• We hold a range of lectures and seminars on topics relevant to legal philosophy: in 2008 our Annual Launch Event was held at the Banco Court, with Justice Keane of the Court of Appeal, Mr Peter Applegarth SC and Professor Suri Ratnapala debating issues related to privacy
• We hold an annual National Essay Competition in the second semester of every year
• In 2008 we are planning to hold the inaugural ALPSA moot

How to get involved

• Join our Facebook group: "Australian Legal Philosophy Students' Association" for news and updates
• Attend lectures and debates held at UQ or elsewhere in Brisbane
• Enter the National Essay Competition
• In semester 2 2008, ALPSA will be holding an AGM- anyone who wants to be involved in ALPSA is more than welcome, whether they want to stand for a position, or just help out
• Contact alpsa2008 -nospam- at gmail.com