Here are some updates to the Symposium since we lasted posted here:

• Attaran, Naghmeh has forfeited her place in the Symposium, she is replaced by Raphael Kok Chi Ren from the University of Malaya.
• Greg Miller is unavailable for the Symposium and has forfeited his place in the Symposium. There are no replacements.

The timetable for the Symposium is currently up, more downloads and updates on the Symposium will follow soon afterwards.

The Singapore Law Review is proud to present the Shortlist for the International Writing Symposium 2008. Overall we received many entries, many of which were fascinating in their own right and reflected the international nature of the competition. We were very much encouraged despite the fact that this is the inaugural competition. Even so, this caused the Shortlist judges some difficulty in selecting the best. Nevertheless, listed below (in no particular order) will be presenting their essays in the National University of Singapore from 25 to 26 August 2008.

• Emmi Okada (University of Sydney, Australia) “The Indigenous, the Imperial and the International: A Contextual Comparison of Laws Concerning the Ainu of Japan and Australian Aborigines”
• Attaran, Naghmeh (McGill University, Canada) “THE STRUGGLE FOR ACCESS TO ALTERNATE BOOK FORMATS BY PRINT-DISABLED STUDENTS”
• Greg Miller (University of Western Ontario, Canada) “Can a Corporation Sue for Discrimination?”
• Shruti Viswanathan (National Law School of India University, India) “Anti-discriminatory Laws: Rationale, Objectives and Functioning - A Comparison of Indian and Brazilian Laws”
• Shatadru Chakraborty (NALSAR University of Law, India) “DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WORKERS UNDER THE SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONES ACT, 2005 – A HINDRANCE TO INDIA’S DEVELOPMENT”
• Anjana Agarwal (National Law School of India University, India) “FAMILY PLANNING POLICIES AND RESULTANT DISCRIMINATION AGAINST THE GIRL CHILD – A STUDY OF INDIA AND CHINA”
• James Little (University of Auckland, New Zealand) “Religious Freedom as Freedom from Discrimination”
• Johanna Aleria P. Lorenzo (University of the Philippines, Philippines) “GIVING LIFE TO THE RIGHT TO NOT CONCEIVE: What the Law and Society in the Philippines Must Do for Its Women”
• Sim Shi Qiang, Amardeep Singh (NUS, Singapore) “DISCRIMINATION: HELP OR HINDRANCE? – LISTENING TO THE BATTERED WOMAN’S SILENT SCREAMS”
• DHANDA Jujhar (University of Glasgow/ on exchange in University of Hong Kong, UK/HK) “Sexual Orientation & Genuine Occupational Requirements”

We will be featuring our IWS Shortlisted Entries in this website in the run up to the Symposium and more details as to how you can participate are on the way! Shortlisted essays stand to take home the top prize of USD$3,000 and more, so we will be wishing our finalist best of luck!

The SLR IWS is organised by the Singapore Law Review and is proudly supported by the National University of Singapore Law Faculty, the Singapore Academy of Law and TS Oon and Bazul.

The 10th July is here, but if you have not noticed, the deadline is really 2359 UTC. For some of our friends, this actually looks like it buys them some time. For 0thers, you might have less time than you think. For your convenience, here is what 10 July, 2359 translates to:

• 1159 Friday 11 July 2008 — New Zealand
• 0959 Friday 11 July 2008 –Sydney, Melbourne
• 0759 Friday 11 July 2008 — Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Manila, Beijing, Perth
• 0659 Friday 11 July 2008 — Bangkok, Jakarta
• 0529 Friday 11 July 2008 — Bangalore, Bhopal
• 0159 Friday 11 July 2008 — Johannesburg, Cape Town
• 2359 Thursday 11 July 2008 — London
• 2059 Thursday 11 July 2008 –Halifax
• 1959 Thursday 11 July 2008 — Toronto, Montreal
• 1659 Thursday 11 July 2008 — Vancouver

If you have sent us an entry, do check your mail accounts to confirm we have received them, and for some, whether there are additional instructions or errors that you may need to ratify.

If you have not sent us an entry yet, do note that we at least need you to submit your entry and the official entry form (look for it under Downloads). We appreciate it if it is in Word or RTF format. We also appreciate it if you could attach these two forms seperately. This is to facilitate the judging process.

Good luck!

We have added one detail to the Rules and Regulations that we missed out earlier: Word count. Here’s the line added to para 18 of the rules and regulations: “Entries must be at least 4,000 words and at most 12,000 words in length. This word count excludes footnotes.” All versions of the R&R have been updated to reflect this change.

Thanks to James, Ken and Emmi for pointing this missing detail. Do contact us if you have any further queries or comments!

After months of hard work and preparation, the Singapore Law Review International Writing Symposium is now launched, starting with the first stage of the event, the submission of essays. We invite undergraduates from all around the world to submit their essays on this year’s topic for their chance to win the top prize of USD 3000 and others. Deadline for submission is 10 July 2008, so don’t procrastinate! Start early and show the world your stuff! Read more

We have made a few more changes to the Rules and Regulations. All versions of the Rules on the website have been amended to reflect the changes. Do note that these changes, along with those in the earlier post, are not reflected in the publicity package sent out to schools.

Changelist

• Clarifications have been made to paras. 8 (”Recommendation”), para 23 (”Marking Criteria”) and para 24 (”Expenses for Foreign Participants”).
• A new paragraph 13 (”Participation”) has been added.
• A new paragraph 29 (”Judging criteria for symposium”) has been added.
• Some grammatical changes.

Although the Rules and Regulations have not been announced as official, we have made a few minor changes to the Rules and Regulations and all version present in this website have been amended. This change is not reflected in the version given in the publicity package sent to schools. Do take note.

Changelist:

• We have updated the rules and regulations to reflect that this website (http://iws.singaporelawreview.org) is the place where changes in rules and regulations takes place, not the Singapore Law Review’s website (http://www.singaporelawreview.org) .
• Some refinements in grammar.