THE LAW SCHOOL HONORS BANQUET was tonight. Because we have an alumnus who believes very strongly in writing skills, we have what I’m told is the largest cash prize for law student writing in America, the Cunningham Prize. (It’s $5000). To my delight, it was won this year by one of my students, for a paper — forthcoming soon in the Berkeley Journal of International Law — on whether nanotechnology-based weapons would fall under the chemical and biological warfare conventions. I thought the paper was excellent, important, and very clear — and so, obviously, did the selection committee, which was composed entirely of non-nanotechnology-familiar people, which means that the “clear” part was especially true, I guess. It’s not out yet, but here’s another piece by the same student, Robert Pinson, from the Environmental Law Reporter, on ethical considerations in terraforming Mars.

UPDATE: Well, I meant “law school prize,” but I didn’t say that, and a reader notes that the Pacific Legal Foundation has some whopping student writing prizes.