Husain Family Legal Essay Competition

The Liberal Arts Honors Program is happy to announce the Husain Family Legal Essay Competition.  To enter the competition, please write and submit an essay that responds to the prompt listed below.

Eligibility: Current Liberal Arts Honors Scholars

Specifications: 750 – 1,000 words, double-spaced with name, EID, and essay title. 

Awards:

1st Prize: $1,000

2nd Prize: $500

3rd Prize: $250

Submission Deadline: Submit your essay to this address by Friday, February 16th, 2024, at midnight.

Send a pdf or doc of your essay to Husain_.h60hf7niak1kjo2z@u.box.com.  Any text in the body of the email will not come through. Please be sure to include your name and EID in the title of file and at the top of your essay.

Prompt:

The United States Supreme Court held in State Farm v. Campbell, 538 US 408 (2003), that punitive damages (or, exemplary damages meant to punish someone, as opposed to compensatory damages) must be reasonable or proportionate to the wrong committed and cannot be irrational or arbitrary, lest they risk unconstitutionally depriving someone of their property. Justice Kennedy ruled that "few awards exceeding a single-digit ratio between punitive and compensatory damages, to a significant degree, will satisfy due process." Under Texas law, plaintiffs must prove by a "clear and convincing” standard that they even have the right to seek exemplary damage, and a jury must rule unanimously on the amount of those damages. See Chapter 41 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code. Further, Chapter 41 of the Code places limitations on exemplary damages. Should maximum caps of this nature exist under state law, or should juries be permitted to punish defendants according to their net worth or culpability without seeking special permission to do so?