Home
Signature Events
G2 Conference
G2 Hackathon 2021

G2 Hackathon 2021

At a moment when trade is being challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic and a resurgence of protectionist sentiments, and the WTO faces crises across many of its core functions, the aim of the 2021 G2 Conference was to elevate new, fresh perspectives with bold ideas for the WTO’s path forward.

We challenged teams of students (2-4 per team) from anywhere in the world to collaborate and in just 72 hours, develop a fully considered and legally sound proposal for an outcome at the WTO that meaningfully addresses an issue that was shared at the launch of the G2 Legal Hackathon on 9 April 2021. The winning team proposals are available here.

The Challenge

Teams had to do the following four things to answer the G2 Hackathon 2021 challenge:

  1. Define the substantive issue that your team is addressing. (500 words)
  2. Propose a specific treaty text, or more informal commitment/declaration, text that addresses the concern or a particular, detailed aspect of it. (200 words)
  3. Suggest a legal/technical or institutional way to implement your textual, substantive proposal within the broader WTO framework. (500 words)
  4. Prepare a short video summarizing the issue and your team’s solution. (3-5 minutes)

Teams were evaluated by a panel of eminent legal and trade policy experts on (i) the creativity of their solutions, (ii) the rigor of their legal drafting, (iii) the feasibility of their proposed path forward and (iv) the clarity of their presentation.

The top three teams presented their proposals during a special panel at the G2 conference. The winning teams received a cash prize of USD 3,000 followed by USD 2,000 & USD 1,000 for the second and third runner up respectively.

Team Eligibility

  1. All Hackathon teams must have at-least 2 and at-most 4 members
  2. All Hackathon team members need to be current undergraduate, masters or PhD students, at the time of participating
  3. Hackathon members must be available from 9 April – 11 April, 2021 and 14 April, 2021 from 9:00 A.M. EST – 2:00 P.M. EST.
  4. Hackathon team members can be from any university or law school in the world
  5. Should one of the Hackathon team members not be eligible s/he will disqualify the entire team

Please find the full Terms & Conditions for participating in the Hackathon here. 

Related Links