Colloquium

The 15th Trinity College Law Student Colloquium will take place in-person at the end of February 2023.

The Committee of the Trinity College Dublin Law Student Colloquium is delighted to commence our call for speakers for the 15th annual Colloquium. If you are interested in speaking at the Colloquium, please submit an abstract on any area of law for anonymous consideration by the Committee by 17:00 (Irish Time - GMT) Thursday, the 29th of December 2022 via this link at the bottom of this page.

About the Colloquium

The Colloquium is Ireland’s leading student conference and welcomes applications from undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as recent graduates in practice. Each year, we have the pleasure of hosting students from across Ireland and around the globe to present their research. 
 
Organised annually for and by the students of the School of Law, the Colloquium provides a platform for leading and emerging legal scholars from Trinity and beyond to present their research on contemporary legal issues from a variety of spheres and invites the wider student body at Trinity and our partner institutions to join these scholars in exploring these themes further. The Colloquium is committed to encouraging dialogue amongst the wider legal community and through this engagement, imagining the possibilities of the law in building a better legal ecosystem together. 

The Best Colloquium Paper Prize

The Editorial Board will publish the best Colloquium paper in Volume XXVI of the Trinity College Law Review. The best paper will also receive a cash prize of €250.

FAQs

I want to speak at the Colloquium. What do I need to do?
If you are interested in speaking at the Colloquium, we would be delighted to receive your abstract on any area of law for anonymous consideration by the Committee. The abstract must be submitted via the link at the bottom of this page. Abstracts must be submitted by 5pm (Irish Time - GMT) on the 29th December 2022. Successful applicants will be informed in early January 2023. Speakers will be selected solely on the basis of these submissions. While you may submit more than one abstract, you will not be permitted to deliver more than one paper at the event.

What is an abstract?
The abstract is a summary of the paper which you intend to give, and should outline your approach to the issues. Abstracts from prospective speakers should be between 400 and 500 words long, with 500 words being the maximum word count permitted. The Committee considers abstracts anonymously. While there are no hard and fast rules as to format, a good abstract will excite interest and should demonstrate a sound knowledge of the subject, a clear structure and original and well-constructed analysis.

I am in the first year of my degree and I have never presented at a university conference. Will I be speaking in front of experts in the area?
The Colloquium has always encouraged undergraduate participation. To this end, we inaugurated the Freshman panel in 2014, in which all of the speakers are in the first or second years of their undergraduate degree. We believe that this gives an additional incentive to early-stage students to present their ideas to their peers in a less intimidating environment. You will be asked to indicate your stage of study when you submit an abstract, so we will know if your abstract is eligible for the panel.

Abstracts and papers may be submitted here.

Queries may be sent to law.student.colloquium@gmail.com or via their Instagram @tcd.colloquium.