The 2010 Nathan Burkan Competition Rules
1. Eligible Students: Second- and third-year J.D. students who have not previously won a Nathan Burkan Competition award.
2. Subject Matter: Any aspect of Copyright Law.
3. Determination of Awards: The prizes will be awarded to the eligible students who shall, in the sole judgment of the GW Law School Intellectual Property Committee, prepare the two best papers. The Committee may, in its discretion, withhold the awards entirely, if in its judgment no worthy paper is submitted, or may award only the first or second prize. Students are not eligible for more than one prize in any Nathan Burkan Competition.
4. Amounts of Awards: A first prize of $600 and a second prize of $250.
5. Requirements as to the Length and Form of Manuscript: Papers must strictly comply with the following requirements; failure to do so will disqualify a paper from receiving any award:
(a) Manuscript must be typewritten (double-spaced) on 8 ½" x 11" paper, 1" margin all around. All quotations exceeding four lines must be indented and single-spaced.
(b) Table of Contents must be included.
(c) Citations must be in approved law review form.
(d) Manuscript must not exceed 50 pages, including footnotes and endnotes, and excluding the Table of Contents.
(e) Three hard copies of manuscript must be submitted along with an electronic copy (these can be the same copies submitted for the Finnegan Prize competition).
(f) Your name may not appear on your paper. Please identify yourself on the cover of the paper by your social security number or GWID number only. When you submit your paper, please also fill out a competition entry form, which will permit us to correlate your name and social security number or GWID number at the end of the judging process. Please indicate on your entry form the names of all persons connected with the GW Law School who have advised you on the paper. These persons will be recused from judging your paper.
6. Submission of Papers and Publication:
(a) If your paper is selected as one of the winners, you must submit three further hard copies of the manuscript bound in a stiff cover (e.g., three ring binder, plastic binding, wire binding, strip binding, etc.) and labeled with the title of the paper, the author’s name, permanent home address and telephone number. An original signed statement from the student-author shall be affixed to the inside back cover of the hard copies of his or her paper, as follows:
I, [student-author’s name]. certify that I have read the Rules Governing the Competition: Academic Year 2008-09, and agree to comply in all respects with those Rules.
[signature of student-author]
You must also submit one copy in electronic form, preferably in Microsoft Word format with the same information as the hard copies to iplaw@law.gwu.edu. Winning papers and accompanying disks will be forwarded by the GW Law School Dean to the Society which may authorize publication in any form (including by electronic means).
(b) A paper that has previously been published in the same or substantially similar form is not eligible for the Competition.
(c) Subsequent to entry in the Competition, papers may be published in scholarly journals, provided their entry in the Competition is duly noted.
(d) Each student-author shall retain the copyright in his or her paper.
(e) Each student-author shall, by entry in the Competition and agreeing to comply with these Rules, grant to the Society a nonexclusive license to publish his or her paper in any form (including by electronic means).
7. Individual Study: Papers must represent individual study and collaboration with others in their preparation is not permitted.
8. Closing Date: Entries must be submitted to the Records Office, Stuart Hall Room 105, the George Washington University Law School, no later than 5pm on Tuesday, April 13th, 2010. Winning papers must be certified by the GW Law School Dean to the Society no later than June 30, 2010.