Fourth Legal Tech Award

The Legal Tech Award is aimed at anyone interested in studying digital technologies and applying them to legal matters. Specifically, it is aimed at graduate students, lawyers, legal advisers and other legal practitioners (notaries, registrars, judges, or public prosecutors), auditors, tax advisers, and other professionals wishing to expand their knowledge of the digital ecosystem.

This competition is ideally suited to put into practice the knowledge acquired during legal training or professional practice — not only theoretical-practical expertise (legal technique), but also expertise in other cross-disciplinary skills that are essential for professional development. Accordingly, the student/author must put their written communication skills into practice and succeed in reaching the reader.

Topic

This edition of the Legal Tech Award focuses on realities or challenges related to law, economics, digital business, and technology. Using this topic as a starting point, the goal is to encourage the participants’ creativity, without imposing any kind of restriction as to their approach. The creativity and originality of the paper will be one of the most important aspects assessed by the jury.

Participants may choose any legal subject related to what is described above and analyse it in this paper, formulating and presenting a critical opinion on the subject.

Object

The object of the Legal Tech Award is the creation of a new and original single-authored paper (not co-authored), which may be approached from any legal perspective, based on the main topic described in the previous section (law, economics, digital business, and technology).

Registration

Students interested in participating in this competition must complete the registration form on this website, at https://www.centrogarrigues.com/. The application deadline is 5 July 2024. There is no financial cost associated with registration.

After the duly filled-in application is received, an email will be sent to the applicant, confirming their registration and participation in the Legal Tech Award. Applicants who do not receive a confirmation email should assume that their application has been rejected.

Style guidelines

The paper must be written in Times New Roman, 12 pt, 1.5 line spacing, justified. The document may not exceed 15 pages in length, excluding notes and/or bibliographical references, which must be cited at the end.

Any bibliographical references that may be of interest due to their relevance to the study of the suggested topic (manuals, monographs, scientific articles, regulations, jurisprudence, etc.) must be correctly identified and cited in APA style.

The paper must include a cover page, containing:

• title of the paper (in Times New Roman, bold, 14 pt, single-spaced, centred);
• name and surname of the author (in Times New Roman, bold, 12 pt, single-spaced, right-aligned);
• programme and year in which the author is enrolled, if a student; title or position, if a professional practitioner (in Times New Roman, bold, 12 pt, single-spaced, right-aligned);
• university of origin or employer (in Times New Roman, bold, 12 pt, single-spaced, right-aligned).

Submission of the final version of the paper

The paper must be submitted by email to Marta Sola (marta.sola@centrogarrigues.com ) no later than 7 p.m. (CET) on 6 September 2024 and in accordance with the following guidelines:

• The subject line must read ‘Legal Tech Award’.
• The body of the email must include the title of the paper and identity of the author.
• Two different versions of the paper, both in PDF format, must be included in attachment: (1) one version must include the title of the paper and identity of the author, including name and surname and university of origin or current employer; and (2) the second version must include only the title of the paper, without identifying the author, their university of origin, or their current employer (this second anonymised version will be the one presented to the jury for evaluation).
• Once this email has been received and it has been confirmed that the attached files can be opened without issue, an acknowledgement of receipt will be emailed back to the applicant. Without this confirmation, the paper will not be considered to have been submitted.

• The jury will be composed of the academic director and research committee members of Centro de Estudios Garrigues. Each submission, duly anonymised, will be evaluated by every member of the jury. Among other criteria, the jury will take into account the scientific rigour, quality, originality, independence, and impact of the paper.

The jury’s decision will be final. Any prize may be declared void if the jury considers that the submissions fail to meet the minimum criteria for the prize to be awarded.

• The following prizes will be awarded:
• First prize: The winner will be awarded a scholarship of 50 per cent tuition to study the Master in Law and Procurement + Master in Legaltech & Business or Executive Master in Digital Law & Technology at Centro de Estudios Garrigues.
• Second prize: The winner will be awarded a scholarship of 25 per cent tuition to study the Master in Law and Procurement + Master in Legaltech & Business or Executive Master in Digital Law & Technology at Centro de Estudios Garrigues.

Every participant will receive a certificate of participation in the competition.

These scholarships are only available for the 2024/25 academic year and are not cumulative with other scholarships, prizes, or grants awarded by Centro de Estudios Garrigues. Prize-winners must provide proof, at the time of their admission to the master’s degree, that they meet the academic or professional requirements.

The jury will reach a decision no later than 13 September 2024. The winners will be announced on the Centro de Estudios Garrigues website and its official social media.

Transfer of intellectual property rights to Centro de Estudios Garrigues

• All prize-winning participants agree to transfer all intellectual property rights over their submissions exclusively to Centro de Estudios Garrigues, without any type of geographical limitation, for the entire legal term of the rights, including the right to transfer or license them to third parties (such transfers may be total or partial, exclusive or not, with or without compensation) and to make use of them via any channels, media, and/or formats.
• The transfer includes, but is not limited to, rights to reproduce, distribute, disseminate to the public (including making them available to the public interactively and on demand), and modify the submissions (including the right to create derivative works) in any form and in any format, including hardback, trade paper, paperback, digital (e.g. on the Centro de Estudios Garrigues blog), periodicals, reviews, promotional editions, print on demand, or any other that Centro de Estudios Garrigues considers necessary to maximise the dissemination of the works.
• Under no circumstances will the publication of the submissions entitle the authors to any kind of economic rights.
• The transfer of rights regulated herein refers to the economic rights over the prize-winning submissions, but does not extend to any moral rights that may apply, which Centro de Estudios Garrigues will undertake to observe and respect.
• Should Centro de Estudios Garrigues fail to publish the prize-winning submissions within a period of one (1) year from the date of notification of prizes, it will forfeit the exclusivity agreed herein and the prize-winning participants may, whether or not in partnership with Centro de Estudios Garrigues and/or third parties authorised by it, publish the prize-winning submissions.

Guarantees

• All prize-winning participants agree to be liable to Centro de Estudios Garrigues as to the lawful exercise of the rights transferred by virtue of this document, affirming that they have not entered into and will not enter into any agreements or obligations of any kind and that the prize-winning works do not infringe and will not infringe on any third-party rights.
• The prize-winning participants exonerate Centro de Estudios Garrigues from any liability and undertake to indemnify it against any judicial and/or extrajudicial claims arising from the non-fulfilment of the guarantees provided herein.
• Moreover, the prize-winning participants undertake to sign any additional documents that may be requested by Centro de Estudios Garrigues to validate or confirm this transfer of rights.

The personal data of participants in the Legal Tech Award will be processed in accordance with the information provided in the registration forms and other specific documents containing information or consent to process the data in connection with the award. Participants must expressly authorise Centro de Estudios Garrigues to use their names and image for the sole purpose of promoting the award and publishing the submissions.

Submission of a paper to this competition constitutes full and unconditional acceptance of these terms and conditions.