Our Essay Competition invites students to explore a wide range of challenging and interesting questions beyond the confines of the school curriculum.
Deadline : 31st May, 2024
The John Locke Institute encourages young people to cultivate the characteristics that turn good students into great writers: independent thought, depth of knowledge, clear reasoning, critical analysis and persuasive style.
Entering an essay in our competition can build knowledge, and refine skills of argumentation. It also gives students the chance to have their work assessed by experts. All of our essay prizes are judged by a panel of senior academics drawn from leading universities including Oxford and Princeton, under the leadership of the Chairman of Examiners, former Cambridge philosopher, Dr Jamie Whyte.
The judges will choose their favourite essay from each of seven subject categories – Philosophy, Politics, Economics, History, Psychology, Theology and Law – and then select the winner of the Grand Prize for the best entry in any subject.
There is also a separate prize awarded for the best essay in the junior category, for under 15s.
Philosophy
Q1. Do we have any good reasons to trust our moral intuition?
Q2. Do girls have a (moral) right to compete in sporting contests that exclude boys?
Q3. Should I be held responsible for what I believe?
Politics
Q1. Is there such a thing as too much democracy?
Q2. Is peace in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip possible?
Q3. When is compliance complicity?
Economics
Q1. What is the optimal global population?
Q2. Accurate news reporting is a public good. Does it follow that news agencies should be funded from taxation?
Q3. Do successful business people benefit others when making their money, when spending it, both, or neither?
History
Q1. Why was sustained economic growth so rare before the later 18th century and why did this change?
Q2. Has music ever significantly changed the course of history?
Q3. Why do civilisations collapse? Is our civilisation in danger?
Psychology
Q1. According to a study by researchers at four British universities, for each 15-point increase in IQ, the likelihood of getting married increases by around 35% for a man but decreases by around 58% for a woman. Why?
Q2. There is an unprecedented epidemic of depression and anxiety among young people. Can we fix this? How?
Q3. What is the difference between a psychiatric illness and a character flaw?
Theology
Q1. “I am not religious, but I am spiritual.” What could the speaker mean by “spiritual”?
Q2. Is it reasonable to thank God for protection from some natural harm if He is responsible for causing the harm?
Q3. Does God reward those who believe in him? If so, why?
Law
Q1. When, if ever, should a company be permitted to refuse to do business with a person because of that person’s public statements?
Q2. In the last five years British police have arrested several thousand people for things they posted on social media. Is the UK becoming a police state?
Q3. Your parents say that 11pm is your bedtime. But they don’t punish you if you don’t go to bed by 11pm. Is 11pm really your bedtime?
JUNIOR prize
Q1. Does winning a free and fair election automatically confer a mandate for governing?
Q2. Has the anti-racism movement reduced racism?
Q3. Is there life after death?
Q4. How did it happen that governments came to own and run most high schools, while leaving food production to private enterprise?
Q5. When will advancing technology make most of us unemployable? What should we do about this?
Q6. Should we trust fourteen-year-olds to make decisions about their own bodies?
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS & FURTHER DETAILS
Please read the following carefully.
Entry to the John Locke Institute Essay Competition 2024 is open to students from any country.
Registration
Only candidates who registered before the registration deadline of Friday, 31 May 2024 may enter this year’s competition. To register, click here.
Submission
All entries must be submitted by 11.59 pm BST on the submission deadline: Sunday, 30 June 2024. Candidates must be eighteen years old, or younger, on that date. (Candidates for the Junior Prize must be fourteen years old, or younger, on that date.)
Entry is free.
Each essay must address only one of the questions in your chosen subject category, and must not exceed 2000 words (not counting diagrams, tables of data, endnotes, bibliography or authorship declaration).
The filename of your pdf must be in this format: FirstName-LastName-Category-QuestionNumber.pdf; so, for instance, Alexander Popham would submit his answer to question 2 in the Psychology category with the following file name:
Alexander-Popham-Psychology-2.pdf
Essays with filenames which are not in this format will be rejected.
The candidate’s name should NOT appear within the document itself.
Candidates should NOT add footnotes. They may, however, add endnotes and/or a Bibliography that is clearly titled as such.
Each candidate will be required to provide the email address of an academic referee who is familiar with the candidate’s written academic work. This should be a school teacher, if possible, or another responsible adult who is not a relation of the candidate. The John Locke Institute will email referees to verify that the essays submitted are indeed the original work of the candidates.
Submissions may be made as soon as registration opens in April. We recommend that you submit your essay well in advance of the deadline to avoid any last-minute complications.
Acceptance of your essay depends on your granting us permission to use your data for the purposes of receiving and processing your entry as well as communicating with you about the Awards Ceremony Dinner, the academic conference, and other events and programmes of the John Locke Institute and its associated entities.
Late entries
If for any reason you miss the 30 June deadline you will have an opportunity to make a late entry, under two conditions:
a) A late entry fee of 20.00 USD must be paid by credit card within twenty-four hours of the original deadline; and
b) Your essay must be submitted before 11.59 pm BST on Wednesday, 10 July 2024.
To pay for late entry, a registrant need only log into his or her account, select the relevant option and provide the requested payment information.
Assessment
Our grading system is proprietary. Essayists may be asked to discuss their entry with a member of the John Locke Institute’s faculty. We use various means to identify plagiarism, contract cheating, the use of AI and other forms of fraud. Our determinations in all such matters are final.
Essays will be judged on knowledge and understanding of the relevant material, the competent use of evidence, quality of argumentation, originality, structure, writing style and persuasive force. The very best essays are likely to be those which would be capable of changing somebody’s mind. Essays which ignore or fail to address the strongest objections and counter-arguments are unlikely to be successful.
Candidates are advised to answer the question as precisely and directly as possible.
Results
The writers of the best essays will receive a commendation and be shortlisted for a prize. Writers of shortlisted essays will be notified by 11.59 pm BST on Wednesday, 31 July. They will also be invited to London for an invitation-only academic conference and awards dinner in September, where the prize-winners will be announced. Unlike the competition itself, the academic conference and awards dinner are not free. Please be aware that nobody is required to attend either the academic conference or the prize ceremony. You can win a prize without travelling to London.
All short-listed candidates, including prize-winners, will be able to download eCertificates that acknowledge their achievement. If you win First, Second or Third Prize, and you travel to London for the ceremony, you will receive a signed certificate.
Prizes
There is a prize for the best essay in each category. The prize for each winner of a subject category, and the winner of the Junior category, is a scholarship worth US$2000 towards the cost of attending any John Locke Institute programme, and the essays will be published on the Institute’s website. Prize-giving ceremonies will take place in London, at which winners and runners-up will be able to meet some of the judges and other faculty members of the John Locke Institute. Family, friends, and teachers are also welcome.
The candidate who submits the best essay overall will be awarded an honorary John Locke Institute Junior Fellowship, which comes with a US$10,000 scholarship to attend one or more of our summer schools and/or visiting scholars programmes.
The judges’ decisions are final, and no correspondence will be entered into.
Key Dates
Registration opens: 1 April, 2024.
Registration deadline: 31 May, 2024. (Registration is required by this date for subsequent submission.)
Submission deadline: 30 June, 2024.
Late entry deadline: 10 July, 2024. (Late entries are subject to a 20.00 USD charge, payable by 1 July.)
Notification of short-listed essayists: 31 July, 2024.
Academic conference: 20 – 22 September, 2024.
Awards dinner: 21 September, 2024.