2026 Global ESSAY PRIZE
Registration for the 2026 Global Essay Prize is now open. Only contestants who have registered by the registration deadline will subsequently be eligible to submit an essay.
The John Locke Institute encourages young people to cultivate the characteristics that turn good students into great writers: independent thought, depth of knowledge, clear reasoning, critical analysis and persuasive style. Our Essay Competition invites students to explore a wide range of challenging and interesting questions beyond the confines of the school curriculum.
Entering an essay in our competition will build knowledge, and refine skills of argumentation. It also gives students the chance to have their work assessed by experts. All of our essay prizes are judged by a panel of senior academics drawn from leading universities including Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford, under the leadership of the Chairman of Examiners, Prof. Terence Kealey.
The judges will select the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prizewinners from each of the ten subject categories - Economics, History, International Relations, Law, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology, Public Policy, Science & Technology, and Theology - and then select the winner of the Grand Prize for the best entry in any subject.
Junior contestants may answer any question from any category, and will be judged separately, against their age peers, within each category.
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​Please find our 2026 Global Essay Prize
questions below:
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Economics
Q1. Should we fear a cashless society?
Q2. Technology now allows personalised pricing. If this came to be widely used, what effects should we expect?
Q3. Did Jeff Bezos get rich at the expense of his customers, his employees, neither or both?
Q1. 'The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.' Is it? Does it?
Q2. What might the world look like if the Library of Alexandria hadn’t burned down?
Q3. Does Che deserve his iconic T-shirt?
Q1. Does foreign aid help or hurt poor people?
Q2. Is the US economy harmed by cheap imports from China?
Q3. Should a coalition of countries (or of billionaires) run an experiment with a libertarian microstate?
Law
Q1. If legislators and judges all accepted the philosophical theory of determinism, what would be the effect on criminal sentencing?
Q2. To what extent should criminal sentencing take into account the effect on the perpetrator’s family?
Q3. Is trial by jury obsolete?
Philosophy
Q1. Is it ever wrong to do the right thing for the wrong reasons?
Q2. What consolations does philosophy offer?
Q3. Why is incest wrong?
Politics
Q1. Is the right to self-determination absolute?
Q2. Did the pandemic normalise authoritarianism?
Q3. Is democracy in crisis?
Psychology
Q1. Why do we care what happens to our body after death?
Q2. Is mental illness over-diagnosed now, or just better recognised?
Q3. Surveys show a widening gender ideological gap in recent years. Why?
Q1. What discount rate should be applied to long-run environmental policies? Why?
Q2. Which unintended consequence was most devastating and why did we fail to predict it?
Q3. Should vaccination be mandatory in a public health emergency?
Q1. Is free speech the enemy of science?
Q2. Is space exploration a necessity or an indulgence?
Q3. Should we be polite to ChatGPT?
Q1. Is religious experience better explained by neuroscience or by theology?
Q2. Research shows a strong inverse correlation between religiosity and per-capita spending on education. Does one cause the other?
Q3. If you achieve enlightenment, how will you know?
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
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FURTHER DETAILS
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Please read the following carefully.
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Entry to the John Locke Institute Essay Competition 2026 is open to students from any country.
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Registration for the 2026 Global Essay Prize is now open.
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​Entry is free.
Each essay must address only one of the questions in your chosen subject category, and must not exceed 2000 words (not counting diagrams, tables of data, endnotes, bibliography or authorship declaration).
FirstName-LastName-Category-QuestionNumber.pdf; so, for instance, a student called Alexander Popham would submit his answer to question 2 in the Psychology category with the following file name:
Alexander-Popham-Psychology-2.pdf
Essays with filenames which are not in this format will be rejected.
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The contestants name should NOT appear within the document itself.
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Contestants should NOT add footnotes. They may, however, add endnotes and/or a Bibliography that is clearly titled as such.
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Each contestant will be required to provide the email address of an academic referee who is familiar with the contestant's written academic work. This should be a school teacher, if possible, or another responsible adult who is not a relation of the contestant. The John Locke Institute will email referees to verify that the essays submitted are indeed the original work of the contestants.
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Acceptance of your essay depends on your granting us permission to use your data for the purposes of receiving and processing your entry as well as communicating with you about the Awards Ceremony Dinner, the academic conference, and other events and programmes of the John Locke Institute and its associated entities.
​Assessment
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Our grading system is proprietary. Essayists may be asked to discuss their entry with a member of the John Locke Institute’s faculty. We use various means to identify plagiarism, contract cheating, the use of AI and other forms of fraud. Our determinations in all such matters are final.
Essays will be judged on knowledge and understanding of the relevant material, the competent use of evidence, quality of argumentation, originality, structure, writing style and persuasive force. The very best essays are likely to be those which would be capable of changing somebody's mind. Essays which ignore or fail to address the strongest objections and counter-arguments are unlikely to be successful. Contestants are advised to answer the question as precisely and directly as possible.
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​Policy regarding the use of AI
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Contestants are welcome to make use of large language models (LLMs) and other related tools in order to develop their thinking on the subject of their essays, and to stress test their arguments. Such online tools should be used for research support and as a thought partner, but certainly not as a substitute for the human author. Bear in mind that the kind of essay that will be produced by AI will generally be inferior - and markedly less original - than an essay produced by a human author who is engaging creatively and critically with automated tools. The Institute’s own examination techniques, and the assessment tools we ourselves have developed, are carefully designed to recognise and reward original thought and expression.
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Results
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The writers of the best essays will be shortlisted for a prize. They will also be invited to London for an invitation-only academic conference and awards dinner in October 2026, where the prize-winners will be announced. Unlike the competition itself, the academic conference and awards dinner are not free. Please be aware that nobody is required to attend either the academic conference or the prize ceremony. You can win a prize without travelling to London.
All short-listed candidates, including prize-winners, will be able to download eCertificates that acknowledge their achievement. If you win First, Second or Third Prize, and you travel to London for the ceremony, you will receive a signed certificate.
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Prizes
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There are prizes for the best essays in each category. The first place winners in each subject category will receive a scholarship worth US$5000 towards the cost of attending any John Locke Institute programme. The second place winners will receive a scholarship worth US$2000, and the third place winners will receive a scholarship worth US$1000. Senior and Junior entries are judged separately, meaning each category awards six prizes total.
The contestants who submits the best essay overall will be awarded an honorary John Locke Institute Junior Fellowship, which comes with a US$10,000 scholarship to attend one or more of our summer schools and/or visiting scholars programmes.
The prize-giving ceremony will take place in London in October 2026, at which winners and runners-up will be able to meet some of the judges and other faculty members of the John Locke Institute. Family, friends, and teachers are also welcome to join.
The judges' decisions are final, and no correspondence will be entered into.
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Key Dates
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Registration opens: 2 February, 2026.
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Registration deadline: 31 March, 2026. (Registration is required by this date for subsequent submission).
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Submissions open: 1 April, 2026.
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Submission deadline: 31 May, 2026
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Late entry deadline: 7 June, 2026 (for the seven-day extension) or 21 June, 2026 (for the twenty-one-day extension).
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Notification of short-listed essayists: 7 July, 2026.
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Academic conference: 2-4 October, 2026.
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Awards dinner: 3 October, 2026.
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From the Chairman of Examiners
The John Locke Institute's Global Essay Prize is acknowledged as the world's most prestigious essay competition.
We welcome tens of thousands of submissions from ambitious students in more than 150 countries, and our examiners - including distinguished philosophers, political scientists, economists, historians, psychologists, theologians, and legal scholars - read and carefully assess every entry.
I encourage you to register for this competition, not only for the hope of winning a prize, and not only for the chance to join the very best contestants at our academic conference and gala ceremony in London, but equally for the opportunity to engage in the serious scholarly enterprise of researching, reflecting on, writing about, and editing an answer to one of the important and provocative questions in this year's Global Essay Prize.
We believe that the skills you will acquire in the process will make you a better thinker and a more effective advocate for the ideas that matter most to you.
I hope to see you in October!
Best wishes,
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Professor Terence Kealey, D. Phil. (Oxon)
Chairman of Examiners
Princeton: +1 (609) 608-0543 . Oxford: +44 (0)1865 566166 . admissions@johnlocke.com
Q. I missed the registration deadline. May I still register or submit an essay?
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A. No. Only contestants who registered before the registration deadline, or who purchased the late registration option, will be able to submit an essay. ​
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Q. Are footnotes, endnotes, a bibliography or references counted towards the word limit?
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A. No. Only the body of the essay is counted.
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Q. Are in-text citations counted towards the word limit?​
A. If you are using an in-text based referencing format, such as APA, your in-text citations are included in the word limit.
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Q. Is it necessary to include footnotes or endnotes in an essay?​
A. You may not include footnotes, but you may include in-text citations or endnotes. You should give your sources of any factual claims you make, and you should acknowledge any other authors on whom you rely.​
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Q. I am interested in a question that seems ambiguous. How should I interpret it?
A. You may interpret a question as you deem appropriate, clarifying your interpretation if necessary. Having done so, you must answer the question as directly as possible.
Q. How strict are the age eligibility criteria?
A. You must be under 19 years old as of the regular submission deadline (31 May, 2026). If you turn 19 on 1 June 2026 or later, you are eligible to compete. There are no minimum age requirements—students of any age under 19 may participate.
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Q. May I submit more than one essay?
A. Yes, you may submit as many essays as you please in any or all categories.
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Q. May I team up with someone else to write an essay?
A. No. Each submitted essay must be entirely the work of a single individual.
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Q. May I use AI software, such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc, in writing my essay?
A. Yes, you may. But please be warned that an overreliance on LLMs etc will most likely mean that your writing will be very similar to thousands of other essays, and most likely less interesting, less original, and less compelling than essays written by contestants who have used technology as a subordinate collaborator in the creative process, rather than as a lazy short-cut.
Since any use of AI (that does not result in disqualification) can only negatively affect our assessment of your work relative to that of work that is done without using AI, your safest course of action is simply not to use it at all. If, however, you choose to use it for any purpose, we reserve the right to make relevant judgements on a case-by-case basis and we will not enter into any correspondence.
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Q. May I have someone else edit, or otherwise help me with, my essay?
A. You may of course discuss your essay with others, and it is perfectly acceptable for them to offer general advice and point out errors or weaknesses in your writing or content, leaving you to address them.
However, no part of your essay may be written by anyone else. This means that you must edit your own work and that while a proofreader may point out errors, you as the essayist must be the one to correct them.
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Q. Do I have to attend the awards ceremony to win a prize?​
A. Nobody is required to attend the prize ceremony. You can win a prize without travelling to London. But if we invite you to London it is because your essay was good enough - in the opinion of the First Round judges - to be at least a contender for First, Second or Third Prize.
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Q. Is there an entry fee?
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A. No. There is no charge to enter our global essay competition unless you submit your essay after the normal deadline, in which case there is a fee of 25.00 GBP (for the seven day extension) or 75.00 GBP (for the twenty-one day extension).
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Q. Can I receive a certificate for my participation in your essay competition if I wasn't shortlisted?
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A. No. Certificates are awarded only for shortlisted essays. Short-listed contestants who attend the award ceremony in London will receive a paper certificate. If you cannot travel to London, you will be able to download your eCertificate.
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Q. Can I receive feedback on my essay?
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A. We would love to be able to give individual feedback on essays but, unfortunately, we receive too many entries to be able to comment on particular essays.
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Q. The deadline for publishing the names of short-listed essayists has passed but I did not receive an email to tell me whether I was short-listed.
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A. Log into your account and check "Shortlist Status" for (each of) your essay(s).​
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Q: Am I too young to participate in the Essay Prize competition?
A: No! The competition is open to students of any age under 19 as of the regular submission deadline of 31 May, 2026.
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Q: Can I win a prize in multiple categories?
A: Yes, it is possible—though extremely rare. You may submit essays in as many categories as you wish (up to one essay per category), and each submission will be considered independently.
If more than one of your essays is judged to be of outstanding quality, you could potentially win
a prize in more than one category.
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Q: If I purchase the late submission option, will my essay be penalised in the
grading process?
A. No, this will not affect how your essay is graded.
Q: Should my essay be in American or Commonwealth (British) English?
A: Either is acceptable. You may write your essay in American or Commonwealth (British) English—just be consistent throughout. Judges will not penalise you for your choice of variant.
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Q: May I write my essay in a language other than English?
A: No. Only essays written in English will be considered.
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Q: I do not have a teacher to list as my referee. What should I do?
A: You can list another responsible adult who is familiar with your academic work. This could
be a tutor, summer programme teacher, or other academic mentor who is not related to you.
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​Q: If I want to purchase the late submission option, but I am submitting more than
one essay, do I pay the late fee multiple times?
A: No. The late submission fee applies per contestants, not per essay. You only need to pay once, even if submitting multiple essays.
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Q: Can I submit an essay on a question from last year?
A: No. Essays must respond to one of the current year’s officially listed questions. Previous questions are no longer eligible.
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Q: I uploaded the wrong draft of my essay? What should I do?
A: You may delete your submission and re-upload, as long as it is before the deadline. (note, your referee will need to approve your essay each time)
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Q: Does my essay need to align with the John Locke Institute's views?
A: Emphatically not. A large proportion of prizewinners have argued positions that are heartily disagreed with by most of our faculty. Academic integrity requires that we acknowledge the best essays regardless of whether or not we agree with their conclusions.
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Q: How can I enter the Junior or Senior Category?
A: Your category is determined solely by your age on the submission deadline. Students who are under the age of 15 as of 31 May will be judged in the Junior Category. All other eligible students will be judged in the Senior Category. You do not need to apply separately for a category.
Q. The system will not accept my essay. I have checked the filename and it has the correct format. What should I do?
A. You have almost certainly added a space before or after one of your names in your profile. Edit it accordingly and try to submit again.
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Q. The profile page shows my birth date to be wrong by a day, even after I edit it. What should I do?
A. Ignore it. The date that you typed has been correctly input to our database.​​
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Q. How can I be sure that my registration for the essay competition was successful? Will I receive a confirmation email?
A. You will not receive a confirmation email. Rather, you can at any time log in to the account that you created and see that your registration details are present and correct.
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