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Sanfey Essay Prize 2024/25

26 Nov 2024

The Executive Committee of the Construction Bar Association of Ireland (“the CBA”) is pleased to invite entries for its essay competition, named in honour of one of the founders of the CBA, The Honourable Mr. Justice Mark Sanfey.

The Sanfey Essay Prize is open to all disciplines, including practitioners and academics, and the CBA would particularly welcome entries from third-level and postgraduate students.

The judging panel will be appointed by the Executive Committee and will be chaired by our esteemed Chair Lydia Bunni BL.


The winner of the First Prize will be awarded €1,000, and will be invited to present their paper at a meeting of the Construction Bar Association of Ireland at the Law Library in Dublin.

The panel will also award a Second Prize of €500, and will present the authors of up to two papers recognised as ‘Highly Commended’ with a copy of Anthony Hussey’s Construction Adjudication in Ireland.


The authors of winning and highly commended entries will be invited to submit summaries of their papers for publication in the CBA Periodical, with the full papers to be published in the CBA Codex (www.cbaireland.ie).


The Judging Panel will allocate marks as follows: 40% of the marks will be allocated in respect of the topic and themes considered in the paper, in terms of range, relevance, originality and relevance to law and/or practice; 40% of the marks will be allocated in respect of the quality and depth of the analysis and discussion of the topic; 20% will be allocated in respect of presentation, clarity of language used, structure, citation and referencing.


Entrants should follow the OSCOLA citation style for any referencing and citations. Entries must be original and not previously published in any format. The award of prizes or commendations is at the discretion of the CBA through its judging panel.


Entries must not exceed 5,000 words (excluding footnotes). Entrants should not put their names (or their firm’s name) anywhere on their entry. Entries should be in pdf format, sent by email to cba@lawlibrary.ie, with the subject line ‘Sanfey Essay Prize 24/25’, no later than 5pm on Friday, 31st January 2025, and with the author’s name and telephone number in the body of the email.

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