Robert Walker Essay 2023

it took me a while to think about how to approach it… i tried weaving the legal side of things (mainly legal personhood) with morality ahahah

really curious about what other people wrote?

I narrowed mine down to a single topic - basically did it on the current laws about space and whether or not commercial asteroid mining should be allowed (since there’s a law that says noone can “own” space and recently there’s been debate over whether extracting resources from space would violate that). Not sure how much sense I made but i did my best lol!

Hi everyone! I found it quite hard to define inanimate thing to begin with but I adopted Grotius' legal personhood and then discussed legal ownership of the internet, the High seas and languages. Good luck everyone )

Are you all looking to apply to Cambridge and if so which college?

Yup! Trinity or Newnham for me… wbu?

Are you all looking to apply to Cambridge and if so which college?

I did something similar!! I actually started by discussing legal personhood, but moved on to how nature and natural features have been considered “legal persons” in recent years (linking it to the ecocentric vs anthropocentric view of whether humans own the natural world). I talked a bit about intellectual property and AI too (like whether it’s immoral to own AI if they become autonomous).

Omg that sounds so smart I could never lol. Are you thinking of doing the John Locke Essay? One of the questions is on AI so might be a good fit!!

Ajghsgsf your space approach is so interesting too!! Yup I’ll be writing an essay for John Locke too (luckily the deadline’s during summer break ahahah). Didn’t know one of the topics was about AI- thanks for the tip!! Are you joining any other essay competitions / related opportunities for law?

has anyone heard back from them at all? x

I think they’re going to publish the results by the end of this month!

I just heard back - I got commended! How did everyone else do?

Hey guys sorry to butt into the conversation, and I'm aware the comp's finished lol, but I took a different approach with mine, focussing on more abstract things that humans cannot own, like oxygen, and also touching on space, as others have said above. Whilst I was not at all convinced by this argument, I submitted it anyway, and I think I have a commendation (they emailed back and said I didn't win an award but they were very impressed with my response) ? Idk if this is just general feedback or a formal commendation, what have they said to everyone else?

Hi there, for mine they but "While I am sorry to inform you that your essay did not win a prize, I am pleased to let you know that the judges placed it in the ‘Commended’ class". Hope this helps!