The NLIU Agreement Drafting and Presentation Competition, 2024

ABOUT THE COMPETITION

The NLIU Agreement Drafting and Presentation Competition, 2024 shall be organized in two phases. The relevant details regarding both the phases are mentioned herewith.

Phase I: CONTRACT DRAFTING AND SUBMISSIONS

• The Competition would require the participants to draft an agreement based on the Contract Proposition, which would be a fictional problem depicting a legal relationship between two parties.
• The Contract Proposition shall be on a commercial topic of contemporary relevance and a resource person shall draft the problem by keeping these factors into consideration.
• Apart from the Agreement, the participants would also include a ’Concept Note’ in their submissions briefly highlighting the rationale behind inclusion of clauses in the agreement.
• The Agreements received from the participants shall be reviewed by student editors in the NLIU Law Review, basis the model contract, based and prepared on the Contract Proposition.
• The Top Fifteen entries as per the review by the Editors of NLIU Law Review shall proceed to the Phase II of the competition.

Phase II: CONTRACT PRESENTATION AND ASSESSMENT

• The Top Fifteen entries shall be invited to the NLIU Campus to present their agreements before the panel of esteemed dignitaries who shall assess the performance of the presenters.
• Upon the completion of the presentations, there shall be a session on drafting and its significance by resource persons, as may be decided.
• Post the session, the prizes would be distributed in the valedictory ceremony.

OBJECTIVES: 

• The event has been proposed to foster the learning of practical aspects relating to law of contracts. It provides a chance to showcase skills before experienced academicians and working professionals.
• There are very few competitions organised which provide such an opportunity to the law students wherein they get to appreciate commercial transactions. 
• Working on a niche legal problem, the participating students will get hands-on experience in transactional drafting which forms an important facet in learning law.
• The objective of specifically including the presentation is to render a unique addition to contract drafting competitions. The element of presentation would help in assessing the knowledge of participants and their rationale behind drafting clauses.

WHY PRESENTATION:

• To test the participants understanding of the clauses incorporated in the contract rather than the mere use of AI and boiler plate clauses. 
• To provide a unique experience to the participants in understanding the expectation of experts and practitioners while presented with the said problem. 
• To foster discussions about the best possible way of drafting an agreement thereby providing a firsthand experience of real-time expectations. 
• To understand the rationale behind the arrangement of clauses by the participant and be presented with real-time feedback from experts. 
• To provide an active engagement with professionals thereby providing an in-depth understanding of nuanced drafting

OTHER DETAILS:

• The competition would be open to students pursuing their undergraduate and post-graduate degrees in the field of law.
• There will be a registration fee of Rupees 250 [Single Participant] and Rupees 400 [Co-authorship up to two participants] for the competition collected in Phase-I from all the registering participants.
• For the participants whose agreements shall be selected for the Phase-II, an additional fee of Rupees 1500 would be collected per person to cover their accommodation and food at the NLIU Campus. 
• You can access the brochure here

IMPORTANT TIMELINE:

• 𝟏𝟒 𝐅𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐲, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒: Announcement of Competition and Release of Competition Brochure 
• 𝟏𝟓 𝐅𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐲, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒: Release of Contract Proposition and Rulebook
• 𝟐𝟗 𝐅𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐲, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒: Closure of Registrations
• 𝟎𝟕 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒: Submission Deadline for Phase-I
• 𝟏𝟔 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒: Announcement of Top Fifteen Entries
• 𝟑𝟎 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒: Presentation and Phase-II of the Competition at NLIU, Bhopal

ELIGIBILITY

The Competition is open to avid researchers and students enrolled in the Undergraduate or Post-graduate Programs in law i.e. 3-year LL.B. course/5-year LL.B. course/LL.M. course etc.  

𝐀WARDS AND PRIZES

• • 𝑾𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒔: ₹25,000
  • ⁠𝑭𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝑹𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒔-𝒖𝒑: ₹15,000
  • ⁠𝑺𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒅 𝑹𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒔-𝒖𝒑: ₹10,000
  • ⁠𝑩𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝑶𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝑺𝒖𝒃𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏 (instead of Best Contract): ₹3,000

𝐎𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐀𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬:

• 1. Publication of Three Concept Notes in the NLIU Law Review Blog.
• 2. Certificate of Merit to Top Performers and Top Fifteen Entries.
• 3. Certificate of Participation to all participants.
• 4. Subscription of Legal Resources to Top Performers.
• 5. More exciting awards and opportunities to be announced soon.

CONTRACT PROPOSITION AND RULES

Rules

1. The Agreement drafted by the participants must be their original work. Use of AI is strictly prohibited for the purposes of the competition. 
2. The Agreement must be drafted in English language. 
3. The language of the Agreement must be plain and simple. 
4. The Submission must be made in .docx format only.
5. The Page Limit for the Contract shall be 15 Pages including the Cover Page and Signature Pages.
6. The word limit for the Concept Note shall be 1,500 words. 
7. Formatting Style: Times New Roman, font size 12, line spacing 1.5, justified alignment, 1 inch margin on all sides. 
8. Submission must be made through the electronic form which can be accessed here.  

Concept Note 

1. The Concept Note must highlight the rationale for inclusion of important clauses in the Agreement in brief. 
2. It should provide for a legal opinion to the Client advising on fulfilment of their interests. The opinion can also delve into the legality and enforcement of the Agreement. 
3. It may also discuss a novel aspect relating to the Contract Proposition which is of contemporary relevance. 

REGISTRATION

The participants may register in a team of two or individually. Individual Participation Fee is Rupees 250 and Co-authorship Participation Fee is Rupees 400.

𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤: https://lnkd.in/eP2qVE2A

𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐑𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤: https://shorturl.at/jlor9