Perse student’s word is law in essay competition success

Vivienne (Lower Sixth) displayed a high level of legal learning in winning a prestigious international essay competition.

She won the law category of the Minds Underground Essay Competition with her insights into the question ‘To what extent should the law intervene in personal autonomy?’

Fellow Perse students Rosabel and Yinghao (both Lower Sixth) were highly commended for their entries in the geography and veterinary categories, while Helen (Lower Sixth) won an excellence award in the Minds Underground British Psychology Olympiad.

Vivienne was thrilled to win the essay competition, having only entered with the intention of looking to expand her research skills.

She said: “My future career is probably in law and it’s something I’ve been curious about since around Year 10.

“My interest is based around human rights and criminal law, so the question I chose to research for the competition was really interesting. I was just using different factors to evaluate the law and personal autonomy, so I talked about euthanasia, drug use, personal data and abortion.

“I had some experience from researching for my EPQ (Extended Project Qualification), so I knew how to find the resources, but I gained a lot of new knowledge from doing this essay.

“My viewpoint at the start was that the law shouldn’t intervene in personal autonomy, but that changed a bit because of the research I carried out. I learned a lot more about the counter-arguments and I did agree with some parts of those, so I now have a more two-sided perspective to my writing.”