First International Blog Writing Competition on International Humanitarian Law by RGNUL, Patiala

The Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law (RGNUL), Punjab, was established by the State Legislature of Punjab by passing the Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Punjab Act.

The Act incorporated a University of Law of national stature in Punjab, thereby fulfilling the need for a Centre of Excellence in legal education in the modern era of globalization and liberalization.

The University has been ranked among the top 10 law schools in India in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.

The Centre for Advanced Study in International Humanitarian Law (CASH) is an esteemed research centre of Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, which is dedicated to research in the field of International Humanitarian Law (IHL).

It aims to ensure that future leaders and opinion-makers understand the practical relevance of the subject of IHL, and have a thorough knowledge of its basic principles.

Whenever there are serious and large-scale violations of IHL, it is important to find out exactly where the problem lies rather than rushing headlong into changing the rules, especially as nowadays, this is an extremely arduous, costly and unpredictable process.

Therefore, the first and foremost function is to sensitize teachers, researchers and students about the provisions of the IHL so that they may choose IHL as the focus of their future research endeavours. It is known for its cutting-edge research in the field of International Humanitarian Law and International Criminal Law.

ABOUT THE BLOG WRITING COMPETITION

The Centre for Advanced Studies in International Humanitarian Law is organizing a blog writing competition for the students studying in various law schools all across the country. The CASH blog writing competition welcomes blogs in the form of articles, short notes, opinions and case commentaries dealing with legal issues related to International Humanitarian Law and International Criminal Law.

The main purpose of organizing this competition is to provide students with a platform to demonstrate their reading, thinking, and writing abilities in a cohesive and condensed manner. This competition will give young authors a platform to explore a wide range of difficult and intriguing issues beyond the typical academic curriculum. The students are required to examine and propose strategies for establishing new and improved humanitarian practices all around the world.

THEMES

The competition has no thematic restraints, but the submission must conform to the issues related to Humanitarian law and armed conflicts. Hence the submissions are expected on a variety of topics relevant to, but not limited to:

• The Duty to Protect by Military Force: Developing Standards for Humanitarian Intervention?

• Personnel Protection in Peace Operations: The Safety Convention's Function in the Context of General International Law

• Protecting the Environment in Relation to Armed Conflict - The Role of Multilateral Environmental Agreements

• An analysis of the effectiveness and legality of using biological weapons during conflicts under international humanitarian law

• International Humanitarian Law: Terrorism and counter-terrorism

• Even wars have limits: The normative framework of IHL

• Interfaith coexistence: Together and Forever

• Sexual Violence: An inevitable aspect of armed conflict

• Humanitarian crises and rights of personals

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

• The deadline for submission of blogs is 15th August 2022. No entry after the deadline shall be entertained.

• The subject and theme of the blog should deal with any contemporary topic related to international humanitarian law. We expect the submissions to be of interpretive, exploratory, and non-descriptive style.

• All submissions must be in Times New Roman, Font size 12, Spacing 1.5, Justified. The word limit should range between 1000-1500 words.

• A maximum of two-level headings is allowed.

• References should be incorporated in the body of the article itself through hyperlinks. No endnotes or footnotes shall be used.

• Co-authorship of a maximum of 2 is permitted.

• We follow a strict no-plagiarism policy. Articles with more than 10 per cent plagiarized content shall be summarily rejected. The author(s) bear sole responsibility for the accuracy of facts, opinions, or views stated in the submitted Manuscript.

• The manuscripts must be submitted through the Google form: https://forms.gle/WuEeoBnqnJKeUVvC7. All entries should be submitted in .doc or .docx format and the file must be titled “CASH- Blog submission”.

• Copyright of all published blog posts shall remain with the Centre. All Moral Rights shall vest with the author(s).

• While submitting the blog, the author shall mention a declaration in the mail as follows: “If selected for publication, the author gives the copyright of the work to the Centre. The author also declares that this is the original and unpublished work of the author(s)”.

Please note that any submission not conforming to these guidelines may be rejected. In the event that the blog submitted to CASH has been already submitted and rejected at any other platform, the author must withdraw it.

REWARDS

Winner of the blog writing competition: Cash Prize of ₹1500.

First Runners up: Cash Prize of ₹1000.

Second Runners up: Cash Prize of ₹500

Top 5 entries will be considered for publication on the website of the centre + One-month internship opportunity with the research team of the Centre for Advanced Studies in International Humanitarian Law.

Certificate of merit to all the participants.

CONTACT DETAILS

In case of any queries, you can write a mail to cash@rgnul.ac.in with the subject “Query for blog” or contact:

Mr. Aviral Mishra (Student Convenor, CASH) at + 91 7985026059.

Ms. Sanskriti Dixit at +91 942466249

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