Peter Cane Prize 2026
Submissions for the Peter Cane Legal Reasoning Prize 2026 will Open in December 2025, with the problem for that year being published around the same time. The deadline for submissions will be in the first week of February 2026, with the Prize Giving Day occurring in early-mid March 2026.
Guidance for Submissions:
- Answers should be written in response to the problem outlined on this year's question sheet, which can be accessed below.
- Answers should be no more than 2000 words long, inclusive of all titles, subtitles, references, and footnotes. (Please note that a separate bibliography is not necessary in cases where the candidate's footnotes are sufficiently detailed.)
- Ideally, all answers should be submitted in size 12 font, formatted with 1.5 line spacing.
- Candidates can use any citation style that they prefer, but should remain consistent throughout. Information on the University's own form of legal citation can be found here.
- Candidates may discuss the material of their answers with colleagues and teachers, but all submitted work must be their own.
Sample answers can be accessed below as examples of highly regarded work from previous years. Additionally, a short video of useful guidance is also available here.
Peter Cane Prize 2025
The Peter Cane Prize Giving Day took place on Tuesday 18th March 2025. We welcomed 9 attendees who had received 'Highly Commended' certificates for their work to the College, as well as our runners-up, Chloe Wong and Marcus Perkin, and our winner, Esmee Cadogan.
Congratulations to Esmee, Marcus, and Chloe! And many thanks to all those who participated and sent in their work.
This year's prize had a record number of entries at 146 of which 13 were selected as 'Highly Commended'. We are very happy to see the popularity of the Peter Cane Prize grow year on year, and offer our true congratulations to all of those who took the time to answer this year's problem.
The History of the Peter Cane Prize
The prize was launched in 2017 and seeks to promote engagement with the ideas and reasoning behind law and legal studies, and particular to encourage those from all backgrounds and walks of life to apply to engage with the academic study of law. The prize is named after the distinguished lawyer, Professor Peter Cane, an internationally acclaimed scholar of legal theory, obligations and public law, and Corpus’ first dedicated law fellow. Each year, the final shortlisted candidates are invited to attend an afternoon event hosted by Corpus Christi, with legal workshops and an award ceremony. The Prize is open to all Year 12 and Year 13 students (or equivalent). You can see the sample question and the sample answers:
Sample answer 1
Sample answer 2
Sample answer 3
If you have questions about the Peter Cane Law Prize, please contact the Outreach Team at admissions.office@ccc.ox.ac.uk