The inaugural Singapore Law Review International Writing Symposium 2008, a two day event where shortlisted contestants from around the world presented and defended their essays on the topic of “Discrimination and the Law — a Help or Hindrance” before a panel of distinguished judges, culminated in a Tea with Chao Hick Tin JA and a Closing Ceremony graced by V.K. Rajah JA on Tuesday, 26th August 2008.

So impressed were the judges by the quality and effort placed into the presentations and papers that, on top of an alluring top prize comprising of US$3000, an LLM opportunity with NUS and internship opportunities with local law firm TS Oon & Bazul, they decided to award a full scholarship for an LLM degree at NUS to first prize winner Emmi Okada from the University of Sydney. The second and third prizes went to James Little from the University of Auckland and Raphael Kok Chi Ren from the University of Malaya, who received US$2000 and US$1000 respectively in addition to LLM opportunities at NUS and internship offers from TS Oon & Bazul.

The rest of the contestants did not walk away empty-handed, however — they received US$1000 to be split amongst the six entries, one of which was a pair effort by Amardeep Singh and Nik Sim Shi Qiang from NUS. Material rewards aside, the most enriching aspects of their participation in the Symposium were probably the friendships made and the ideas and knowledge exchanged, all of which will hopefully bring them further in their personal journies towards becoming future thought leaders in their respective fields of work.

Where do we go now?

SLR will be publishing all the essays from the IWS and a few more in the 27th volume of the SLR. Bolstered by the overwhelming success of the first IWS, SLR will be working towards organising the second edition of the IWS in 2010. We hope to see you then experiencing the Symposium firsthand!

The Singapore Law Review International Writing Symposium is organised by the Singapore Law Review. The Symposium is proudly supported by the National University of Singapore Law Faculty, the Singapore Academy of Law and TS Oon & Bazul.