LAW ESSAY COMPETITION: Enter for your chance to win £250
The Lewis Silkin Essay Competition is back!
Why should you enter? Entering the competition is something extremely valuable to have on your CV. It’s not just that though. The chance to get your hands on some cash. This year, we will be awarding two prizes of up to £250. Who doesn’t want the chance to get their hands on some cold hard cash?
If you fancy your chances, then answer the following question in no more than 1250 words.
Option 1: Should UK companies be held legally responsible for their contributions to climate change?
There’s growing pressure around the world to hold big companies accountable for their environmental impact. With climate change climbing ever higher on the agenda, this question asks whether the UK’s legal system is doing enough to respond, or whether it needs to go further.
What to think about:
Can companies be sued for harming the environment? Look into recent cases such as Milieudefensie v Shell.
What responsibilities do businesses already have under laws like the Companies Act 2006 (Section 172), which requires directors to consider environmental and social impacts.
What’s included in the Environment Act 2021? Does it give regulators enough power to hold companies to account?
Should we expect businesses to change voluntarily, or is it time for stricter legal duties?
How are other countries handling this? Are there lessons the UK could learn?
A great answer will look at the current law, explore where it might fall short, and consider how we balance legal responsibility with the realities of running a business.
Option 2: Should people in the UK have a legal right to be forgotten online?
We all leave a digital trail, but should we have the right to wipe it clean? This question invites you to explore whether people in the UK should be able to ask search engines or websites to remove information about them.
What to think about:
The UK GDPR (based on the EU’s GDPR) already includes a ‘right to erasure’ in Article 17 how far does this go in practice?
Look at the famous Google Spain v Costeja González case, where a man won the right to have search results about his old debt removed.
How do we balance someone’s right to privacy with the public’s right to know?
What role does freedom of expression play? Could this kind of right be misused to hide information?
The Data Protection Act 2018 also supports the right to erasure in UK law.
Think about how rights under the European Convention on Human Rights might come into conflict.
A strong answer will weigh up individual rights, the impact on free speech, and whether the UK should go further (or take a different approach) as it moves away from EU law.
We would like to see you cite sources to support your arguments and perhaps consider the impact on specific industries.
Send in your entry to essaycompetition@lewissilkin.com. Two winners will be selected who will receive up to £250 each. Details will be published of winners in a press release on the Lewis Silkin website, which you can share with your family/friends and prospective employers/universities. Alongside this, you will also receive an official certificate recognising your achievement.
Deadline for entries: 11:59pm on 26 September 2025
