INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH PAPER

WRITING COMPETITION,
2020

GUIDELINES
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. ABOUT THE COMPETITION 1

2. RULES AND GUIDELINES 2
ADMINISTRATION 2
ELIGIBILITY AND AUTHORSHIP 2
3. THEME & TOPICS 3
4. REGISTRATION 4
5. PAPER SUBMISSIONS 5
6. EVALUATION OF RESEARCH PAPERS 6
7. PENALTIES 6
8. AWARDS 7
9. MISCELLANEOUS 8
10. IMPORTANT DATES 9
11. ORGANIZING COMMITTEE 9
FACULTY COORDINATOR 9
STUDENT COORDINATORS 9
 1. ABOUT THE COMPETITION

With the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of the Coronavirus outbreak
as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30th January 2020, states
have been affected by the pandemic in one or the other way. Globally, states are
working to their optimum level and in some cases, even collectively to contain the
perils of the pandemic and shift the present havoc to normalcy. The emergence of
this uncertainty has started debates among scholars on the possible changes and
reconfiguration of power balance in the world. Many big questions surround this
uncertainty today. To mention a few, “What sort of significant changes will this
emergency bring about in the international world order?” and the most undeniable
one being, “What will the post COVID-19 world look like?” We firmly believe that
there is a need for research to explore the emerging nuances in the global order.

With these thoughts in consideration, Kathmandu School of Law Review (KSLR),

Amnesty International Fusion Youth Network (AIFYN), and the Cognition Club are
collaboratively organizing the “International Research Paper Writing Competition,
2020” with the core theme “International Order Post COVID-19”. Our main
purpose behind organizing this competition is to harness creativity in participants and
bring out situational analysis based research work in the areas of international politics,
international law, economics, human rights, and other streams of social science. This
competition will engage students to further develop their research skills and foster
their ability to think from a global paradigm.
The competition theme not only engages the participants to bring out their
propositions through research but also considers the curiosity of readers and
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addresses it. We have carefully proposed certain topics relevant to the theme that the
participants could take into consideration in order to better analyze and express their
thoughts in free space.

2. RULES AND GUIDELINES

 ADMINISTRATION
Kathmandu School of Law Review (KSLR), Amnesty International Fusion
Youth Network (AIFYN) and Cognition Club, shall jointly function as the
administrative bodies for all the purposes of this competition.

 ELIGIBILITY AND AUTHORSHIP

1. The competition shall be open to undergraduate and graduate students
currently enrolled in any university across the world.

2. Co-authorship to a maximum of two authors is permitted.

3. Only one submission shall be allowed per author(s).

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 3. THEME & TOPICS

The theme for the competition shall be “International Order Post COVID-
19”. The topics must be chosen from/inspired by any aspect based on the
theme. However, some of the suggested topics are:

1. Impact of COVID-19 on International Organizations with Reference to

the UN

2. Asia’s Role in Global Governance: The Rise of a New International

Economic Order

3. Misinformation and its Impact in Light of the Pandemic: Possible Steps by

South Asia in Combating Fake News

4. Human Rights in Light of Technology : Exploring the Interface and

Assessing the Intersectionality

5. COVID - 19 and its Impact on Regional Institutions in the Asia-Pacific

6. Need for a ‘Trans-civilizational’ Dialogue in International Law: A response

to ‘Civilizational’ Approach to International Law of the West

7. Gunboat to ‘Shared future’ argument: Exploring shades of Diplomacy in

International Relations

8. Asia and Emergency: Pandemic, Public Health Emergency and Disaster

Risk Reduction mechanisms

9. Cosmopolitanism under Scrutiny: A take on the Post COVID-19 World

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 10. Impact of Global Lockdown on Climate Change and the Green Way
Forward (post lockdown)

11. Changes in Geo-Politics vis-a-vis US

12. Emergence of Socialism Oriented International Economic Order

13. Rights of Migrant Workers and State Responsibility
14. Global Food Security and Poverty Induced by the Pandemic
15. Globalization and Global Interconnectedness Post COVID-19
16. The Revival of a New Era of Asian Century in Global Governance
17. Compulsory Licensing in the Intellectual Property Regime Concerning
Potential COVID-19 Vaccines.
18. The Surge of Domestic Violence during the COVID-19 Pandemic
19. Ensuring the Rights of Health Workers during and after the Pandemic
20. The Economic Consequences on the Aviation Industry and its Way Out
21. The Effect of COVID-19 in the International Education Industry
22. The Effect of COVID-19 on the Rights of Children
The aforementioned topics are purely suggestive. Apart from these topics, participants can submit their
work on any topic related to the theme.

4. REGISTRATION

Registration for the competition shall be free of cost. Submission of the papers
shall automatically register the participant(s) for the competition.

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 5. PAPER SUBMISSIONS

1. The soft copy of the paper must be submitted to the organizers in Word
(.doc/.docx) via the following link: https://qrgo.page.link/scXrw latest
by 5TH August, 2020 11:59 PM NPT (GMT +5:45).

2. Guidelines

⮚ The research paper shall be in English.

⮚ The file name of the research paper should be “Author’s name(s)_irpwc”.
⮚ The word limit for the abstract of the research paper is 200-300 words. The
file name of the abstract of the research paper should be “Author’s
name(s)_abstract”.
⮚ The word limit for the research paper is 4000-8000 words, exclusive of
footnotes or any other references.
⮚ The mandatory formatting specifications for the research paper are: 1-inch
margin on all sides; Garamond typeface with 12 font size & 1.5-line spacing.
⮚ For footnotes, the mandatory formatting specifications shall be: Garamond
typeface with 10 font size; and single (1) line spacing.
⮚ Authorities must be cited throughout the research paper using the
OSCOLA citation guide.
⮚ The research paper should be the original work of the author(s) and should
not have been sent for publication purposes elsewhere.
⮚ The submissions must be in Word (.doc/.docx) format.

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 4. All submissions shall conform to the submission guidelines. Failure to do so
may result in the submission being rejected.

6. EVALUATION OF RESEARCH
PAPERS

1. Each research paper shall be evaluated on a scale of 100.

2. The evaluation criteria for the competition shall be:

Extent of Research and Clarity of Thought 20

Proper and Articulate Analysis 20

Novelty 20

Organization and Presentation 20

Grammar and Language 20

7. PENALTIES

1. Improper formatting: 1 point for each instance.

2. Exceeding word limit: 2 points for more than 100 words.

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 8. AWARDS

1. The paper with the highest score will be declared "Best Paper" by our
independent judges and the author(s) will be awarded a certificate and a cash
prize of US $150/- (Inclusive of bank transfer charges wherever applicable).
2. The paper with the second-highest score will be declared as "Second Best
Paper” by our independent judges and the author(s) will be awarded a
certificate and a cash prize of US $100/- (Inclusive of bank transfer charges wherever
applicable).
3. The paper with the third highest score will be awarded as “Third Best Paper”
by our independent judges and the author(s) will be awarded a certificate and
a cash prize of US $50/- (Inclusive of bank transfer charges wherever applicable).
4. Five papers will be awarded the title of the “Honorary Mention” and the
author(s) will be awarded certificates.
5. All the participants will receive a Certificate of Participation.
6. The top three research papers will be published in Kathmandu School of
Law Review, a flagship peer-review journal of Kathmandu School of Law.
7. The organizers will send all other papers to the peer- review board of the
KSLR and the review board will make the decision whether other papers will
be published in the journal or not.

Note: The organizers may, in their prudence, decide to grant additional prizes
other than the ones described.
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 9. MISCELLANEOUS

1. Any paper or any part of it thereof that have been shown or accepted for
other competitions or published in any form will be considered as ineligible.
Moreover, any form of plagiarism will result in disqualification of the paper.
Plagiarism higher than 10% shall be disqualified in the preliminary round of
evaluation.

2. The authors by submitting the research papers give the administrators and
organizers, the right to publicize the entries without any royalty or
compensation.

3. A Panel of evaluators shall be constituted to evaluate and select the best

entries and the decision of the panel shall be final and binding.

4. The participant, by registering in the competition, agrees to indemnify the

administrators from and against claims, suit and damages based on any claim
of copyright infringement, plagiarism or unauthorized use.

5. The administrators reserve the absolute rights to cancel, defer or postpone

indefinitely, the competition in an event accruing to any contingency, natural
or human-made.

6. In case of any dispute, the decision of the organizers shall be final and
binding and is not liable to any clarification to any of the participants
regarding evaluation of their research papers.
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 10. IMPORTANT DATES

Release of Competition Brochure: 7th June 2020

Last Date of Submission: 5th August 2020 11:59 pm NPT (GMT +5:45)

Declaration of Results: 1st week of September 2020

11. ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

FACULTY COORDINATOR
1. Gyanu Gautam, Assistant Professor, Kathmandu School of Law

STUDENT COORDINATORS
1. Arzoo Karki, Board Member, Amnesty International Fusion Youth Network
2. Nikhil Dongol, Associate Student Editor, Kathmandu School of Law Review
3. Prajwol Bickram Rana, Associate Student Editor, Kathmandu School of Law
Review
4. Pratap Adhikari, Board Member, Cognition Club
5. Shyam Sundar Shrestha, Board Member, Cognition Club
6. Kushal Khadka, Board Member, Cognition Club

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7. Sulav Jung Rayamajhi, Assistant Student Editor, Kathmandu School of Law
Review
8. Charul Sigdel, Board Member, Cognition Club
9. Supriya Khanal, Board Member, Amnesty International Fusion Youth Network
10. Ashlesha Joshi, Board Member, Amnesty International Fusion Youth Network

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