Each year at International Law Weekend, the American Branch honors members and others in the international law community who have demonstrated exceptional service to the Branch and individuals who have greatly contributed to the field of international law.

The ABILA Outstanding Achievement Award was established to recognize outstanding contributions in the field of international law. Such contributions might include, but are not limited to service to an international organization, a State, or an international court or tribunal; or to teaching, research, or scholarship in the field of international law. While candidates are reviewed comprehensively, factors considered may include consideration of an individual’s specific extraordinary service initiatives and/or sustained superior contributions to the field of international law over a number of years, as well as visionary and innovative leadership.

Nominations for the award are accepted each spring with a July 1 deadline for submission. Recipients of this annual award need not be current members of the American Branch.

2024 Recipient: The Honorable Charles N. Brower

Hon. Charles N. Brower’s 55-year career in the law has combined extensive practice at the bar with distinguished public service, both national and international. For nearly 40 years, he has focused on public international law and international dispute resolution. As counsel or arbitrator, he has handled cases on all six continents, principally under the rules of the ICC, UNCITRAL, LCIA, AAA, United Nations Compensation Commission, ICSID, Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, Insurance and Reinsurance Arbitration Society, and LMAA. These cases have involved a wide variety of commercial disputes as well as issues of public international law, particularly involving the oil and gas sector, major infrastructural projects, expropriations, and other investment disputes, including ones arising under both bilateral and multilateral investment treaties. He has served continuously since 1983 as a judge of the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal in The Hague, The Netherlands. That service was interrupted for some months in 1987 by White House service as Deputy Special Counsellor to President Reagan. Brower resumed partnership in White & Case LLP from 1988 until joining 20 Essex Street in 2001. Since 2014, he has also served as a Judge ad hoc at the International Court of Justice.

2023 Recipient: Navanethem (Navi) Pillay

Navi Pillay served as the former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, former President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and former Judge of the International Criminal Court. Throughout her career, she has been a trailblazer, encouraging and inspiring other women and South Africans to pursue and contribute to international law.

After receiving a BA and LLB from Natal University South Africa, Judge Pillay became the first non-white woman to start a law practice in her home province of Natal, South Africa in 1967. During her practice under the apartheid regime, she was not allowed to enter a judge’s chambers. For the next few decades, she was a defense attorney for anti-apartheid activists and secured key rights for political prisoners on Robben Island, including Nelson Mandela. In the 1980s, she then graduated from Harvard Law School with an LLM and Doctor of Juridical Science, becoming the first South African to obtain a doctorate there. In 1995, nominated by Nelson Mandela, Judge Pillay became the first non-white woman to serve as a Judge on the High Court of South Africa. Entering her own chambers was the first time she was finally allowed to enter a judge’s chamber. In that same year, she became a Judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, where she served for eight years total including four years as President. She was the only female judge for the first four years of the tribunal and is lauded for her role in the landmark trial of Jean-Paul Akayesu, which established that rape and sexual assault could constitute acts of genocide. In 2003, she was then elected to the first ever panel of Judges of the International Criminal Court and assigned to the Appeals Division. In 2008, she resigned to serve as the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights until 2014.

Throughout her career, Judge Pillay has worked extensively with rights groups. In South Africa, she co-founded the Advice Desk for the Abused and ran a shelter for victims of domestic violence. As part of the Women’s National Coalition, she contributed to the inclusion of the equity clause in South Africa’s Constitution that prohibits discrimination on the grounds of race, religion, and sexual orientation. She also co-founded Equality Now, an international women’s rights organization. Judge Pillay has been globally recognized for her contributions to law, receiving the inaugural Gruber Prize for Women’s Rights in 2003 and being ranked 64th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes in 2009.

She currently serves as Judge ad hoc of the International Court of Justice in the application of the Genocide Convention. She is the Commissioner of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty and the President of the Advisory Council of the International Nuremberg Principles Academy. She also serves as Chair of the Quasi-Judicial Inquiry into Detention in North Korea.

Past Recipients

2022:

H.E. Justice Richard Goldstone served as prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda between 1994 and 1996. Previous to serving as Prosecutor, he had chaired what became known as the Goldstone Commission, an independent judicial commission that investigated activities and people who posed a threat to the restoration of civil rights during the transition to post-apartheid South Africa. Mr. Goldstone served as justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa from 1995 to 2003.

Since his retirement, Mr. Goldstone has engaged in numerous activities related to the rule of law and human rights. In 1999, he chaired the Independent International Commission on Kosovo that was established by the Swedish Prime Minister, Goran Persson. In 2004 he was appointed by the secretary-general of the United Nations to the Independent International Committee that investigated the Iraq Oil for Food program, and his chairmanship of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on possible war crimes and international human rights violations committed by any party in the context of the military action in Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009.  In 2008, he chaired a U.N. committee to advise the United Nations on appropriate steps to preserve the archives and legacy of the Ad Hoc Criminal Tribunals.  He recently chaired the Independent Expert Review established in December 2019 by the Assembly of States Parties to review the International Criminal Court and Rome Statute system.

Mr. Goldstone is the recipient of many awards, including the MacArthur Award for International Justice, the American Bar Association’s International Human Rights Award, and the Richard E. Neustadt Award from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, as well as honorary doctorates of law from universities in South Africa, Europe, North America, and Israel.  He is an international member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an honorary bencher of the Inner Temple, London, and an honorary fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge. He is also the author of “For Humanity: Reflections of a War Crimes Investigator.”

Watch Mr. Goldstone’s Keynote Address accepting this award at International Law Weekend 2022 here.

2021:

Fatou Bensouda has shown steadfast leadership and courage in the field of international law at the International Criminal Court, where she was the first woman and first African to serve as Chief Prosecutor from 2012 to 2021. She had previously served the Court as Deputy Prosecutor since 2004. During her time as Prosecutor, Ms. Bensouda worked toward accountability for atrocity crimes, in particular addressing traditionally underreported crimes such as sexual and gender-based crimes, mass atrocities impacting children, and the deliberate destruction of cultural heritage within the Rome Statute framework.

Prior to her work at the ICC, Ms. Bensouda was successively State Counsel, Senior State Counsel, Principal State Counsel, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, Solicitor General and Legal Secretary of the Republic, and Attorney General and Minister of Justice of The Republic of The Gambia. Her international career as a nongovernment civil servant formally began at the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, where she worked as a Legal Adviser and Trial Attorney before rising to the position of Senior Legal Advisor and Head of the Legal Advisory Unit (2002 to 2004). Ms. Bensouda has served as delegate of The Gambia to, inter alia, the meetings of the Preparatory Commission for the ICC.

She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the distinguished ICJ International Jurists Award (2009), presented by the then President of India P. D. Patil; the 2011 World Peace Through Law Award presented by the Whitney Harris World Law Institute, the American Society of International Law’s Honorary Membership Award (2014), and the XXXV Peace Prize by the United Nations Association of Spain (2015).

Watch Ms. Bensouda’s Keynote Address accepting this award at International Law Weekend 2021 here.

The Charles Siegal Distinguished Service Award was established by the ABILA Board of Directors in 2020 to recognize outstanding contributions to the Branch by a member of the ABILA. Contributions may include to the ABILA Board, ABILA Committees, and/or the ABILA’s International Law Weekend. In choosing the recipient, the Selection Committee may consider an individual’s specific extraordinary service initiatives and/or sustained superior contributions to the ABILA over a number of years.

Solicitations for nominations for the award are sent to ABILA members each spring with a July 1 deadline for submission.

2024 Recipient

Professor Philip Moremen is an Associate Professor and Department Chair at Seton Hall University’s School of Diplomacy and International Relations. He is a long-time devoted member of the ABILA, currently serving as Honorary Vice-President. For the past 24 years, Professor Moreman has been an active member of ABILA’s Executive Committee, now its Board of Directors. He has also overseen the Proceedings of the Branch for several years. Professor Moreman chaired the Formation of Customary International Law Committee. As a member of the Branch’s Centennial Committee, Phil played a leading role in helping ABILA create a series of meaningful events and programs related to the Centennial year. Of particular note was his distinguished service as Director of Studies for several years, exhibiting wise leadership, collegiality, and counsel. He has worked diligently with students, encouraging their interest in international law and participation in the ABILA’s work. Finally, his thoughtful and quiet leadership style has been an incredible and memorable gift to the Branch. Through this award, we recognize Professor Moremen’s exemplary and selfless contributions to the work and success of the ABILA over many years, for which he more than merits our appreciation, respect, and deep admiration.

2023 Recipients

Ved Nanda is Distinguished University Professor and Thompson G. Marsh Professor of Law at the University of Denver, where he founded the International Legal Studies Program in 1972 and directs the Nanda Center for International and Comparative Law. A world-renowned international law scholar and human rights advocate, he has set the standard for promoting the interests of our student members with the greatest good cheer, energy, wisdom, and enthusiasm, encouraging their active engagement in the activities of the Branch. The American Branch recognizes him for his decades of active service in and invaluable contributions to the Branch, including as a member of the Executive Committee, as an Honorary Vice-President, as a David Dudley Field Patron, and for organizing and participating in numerous panels at many International Law Weekends and regional International Law Weekends as well as through his active participation in committees of the International Law Association.

John Noyes is Roger J. Traynor Professor of Law Emeritus at California Western School of Law, San Diego, CA. An Honorary Vice President of the American Branch since 2014, he served as President (2008-10), chaired the Executive Committee (2010-2014), and held many other offices, including Editor of the Branch Proceedings and active member of numerous Branch Committees. He has demonstrated extraordinary commitment, leadership, and organizational skills. A patron since 2008, John oversaw the challenging transformation of the Branch from a voluntary association to an incorporated not-for-profit (1995-2004). He has represented the Branch wisely and effectively at the International Law Association, including on its Executive Council and (among others) the ILA committees on Baselines under the International Law of the Sea, Legal Issues of the Outer Continental Shelf, and Coastal State Jurisdiction Relating to Marine Pollution. The American Branch acknowledges and thanks him for his wise leadership, thoughtful counsel, and dedicated service to our Branch over many years.

Past Recipients

2022:

David P. Stewart has been a longstanding leader in the American Branch. He has served as an ABILA Executive Committee member, Vice-President, President-Elect (2012-2014), President (2014-2018), and Chair of the Board of Directors (2018-2022). Prior to his term as President, he took on many presidential duties, including the Branch Newsletter. During his tenure as President, he organized several conferences, including the inaugural International Law Weekend–South, and served as a key member of the organizing group for the 76th International Law Association Conference in Washington, D.C. in 2014.

Professor Stewart represented the American Branch on ILA committees, including the International Protection of Consumers Committee and the Committee on Protection of Privacy in Private International and Procedural Law. He also led several American Branch Committees including as Co-Chair of the Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Committee and Co-Chair of the Commercial Dispute Resolution Committee.

Committed to service and innovation, he spearheaded joint initiatives with other organizations, for instance, serving as Co-Director of the 2009-10 ABILA-ASIL study of the implementation of transparency norms in international investment and commercial arbitration. He is a regular panelist and panel chair at International Law Weekends. Professor Stewart has been a mentor to many ABILA members, a friendly and diplomatic colleague, and a willing participant whenever assistance has been needed.

2021:

James “Jim” Nafziger has contributed to both the International Law Association and the American Branch over a 40-year span. In the American Branch, he chaired the Human Rights Committee; served as Director of Studies, Vice President, and President; initiated, during his tenure as President, regional International Law Weekends and greatly expanded Branch membership; and promoted cooperation with other international law organizations.

In the International Law Association, for over 25 years, he served as Rapporteur and then Chair of the Cultural Heritage Law Committee, which produced valuable studies and two draft conventions. He was named to the ILA’s Executive Council in 2000, representing the American Branch there for 16 years before his elevation to the office of Vice-Chair of the Council – one of a very small number of ABILA members ever to have been so honored. Professor Nafziger truly appreciates, and has worked diligently to further, the roles of the ILA and the Branch in preparing committee studies that develop and advance international law and in staging educational and networking events, such as International Law Weekend, regional ILWs, and ILA conferences. He has strengthened the ILA and the Branch on numerous fronts and has been a valuable mentor and resource for the current ABILA leadership.

2020:

Cynthia Lichtenstein was a longstanding leader of the monetary law and securities related committees in both the International Law Association and the American Branch. She served as Chair of ABILA’s Committee on Committees (later renamed Director of Studies), and subsequently as ABILA’s President (1986-1992) and then as Chair of the Executive Committee.

Professor Lichtenstein has always enhanced the interests and visibility of ABILA in her service to the ILA at the international level as a leader of two ILA committees, as a mainstay of countless ILA Executive Council meetings and Biennial Conferences, and as ILA Vice Chair (2008-2016). She promoted the needs of practitioners and advocated for their inclusion in ABILA, and has long been a vigorous proponent of active outreach to, and involvement of, student members as an important goal of the Branch.

The ABILA Book Awards were established to recognize the best books on international law published by ABILA members. Eligible books must have been published within the calendar year of nomination or the preceding calendar year. The subject matter of the book must fall into the broadly defined category of international law.

The Book Awards Committee is proud to offer four separate awards:

     – ABILA Book of the Year Award: Awarded each year to the best book published on international law or a topic in international law.

     – ABILA Practitioners Book Award: Awarded each year to the best book published on a technical topic in international law or on a topic likely to be of particular interest to practitioners of international law.

     – ABILA New Authors Book Award: Awarded each year to the best first book published on international law or a topic in international law by an author who has not previously published a book on this or any other subject.

     – ABILA Edited Volume Award: Awarded each year to the best edited volume published on international law or a topic in international law.

Solicitations for nominations for the award are sent to ABILA members each spring with a July 1 deadline for submission.

2024 Recipients:

ABILA Book of the Year Award:

Laurence Burgorgue-Larsen for The 3 Regional Human Rights Courts in Context – Justice That Cannot Be Taken for Granted (Oxford University Press, 2024). Professor Burgorgue-Larsen is a Professor at the Sorbonne Law School, a Member of the Institut de Recherche en droit international et européen de la Sorbonne, Director of the Studies Group on International Law and Latin American Law, and Director of the Master 2 ‘Human Rights and the European Union.’ The 3 Regional Human Rights Courts in Context: Justice That Cannot Be Taken for Granted is the first book to offer a comprehensive comparison of the three systems. Rather than merely juxtaposing analogous features, the book considers how the three courts operate as parts of a greater, integrated whole. Similarities and differences between the courts are illuminated alongside historical, political, and sociological insights, in addition to the book’s primary legal focus.

ABILA Practitioners Book Award:

Sean D. Murphy and Edward T. Swaine for The Law of U.S. Foreign Relations (Oxford University Press, 2023). Sean D. Murphy is the Manatt/Ahn Professor of International Law at George Washington University, where he teaches U.S. foreign relations law and international law. Between 1987 and 1998, he served in the Department of State’s Office of the Legal Adviser. Edward T. Swaine is the Charles Kennedy Poe Research Professor at the George Washington University Law School. He previously served as the Counselor on International Law at the State Department. The Law of U.S. Foreign Relations is a comprehensive and incisive discussion of the rules that govern the conduct of U.S. relations with foreign countries and international organizations, and the rules governing how international law applies within the U.S. legal system. 

ABILA New Authors Book Award:

Patryk I. Labuda for International Criminal Tribunals and Domestic Accountability – In the Court’s Shadow (Oxford University Press, 2023). Patryk I. Labuda is an Assistant Professor of international law and international relations at Central European University in Vienna. Previously, he was an Assistant Professor at the University of Amsterdam and has held positions at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, NYU School of Law, the University of Zurich, and more. By interrogating how international accountability stakeholders relate to their domestic counterparts, International Criminal Tribunals and Domestic Accountability advocates improvements to ICTs’ institutional design and more dynamic interactions with states to strengthen the enforcement of international criminal law.

ABILA Edited Volume Award:

MJ Durkee for States, Firms, and Their Legal Fictions – Attributing Identity and Responsibility to Artificial Entities (Cambridge University Press, 2024). Professor Durkee is the William Gardiner Hammond Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. Durkee chairs the International Legal Theory Interest Group of the American Society of International Law and has previously served on the Society’s Executive Committee, among other leadership posts. This volume offers a new point of entry into questions about how the law conceives of states and firms. Because states and firms are fictitious constructs rather than products of evolutionary biology, the law dictates which acts should be attributed to each entity, and by which actors. Those legal decisions construct firms and states by attributing identity and consequences to them. As the volume shows, these legal decisions are often products of path dependence or conceptual metaphors like “personhood” that have expanded beyond their original uses.

Past Recipients:

2023 ABILA Book of the Year Award:

Frédéric Sourgens for Good Faith in Transnational Law: A Pluralist Account (Brill Nijhoff, 2022). Frédéric Sourgens is the James McCulloch Chair in Energy Law at Tulane University Law School’s Center for Energy Law. The book explains and recasts fragmentation of transnational law and its capture by self-interested corporate actors as something valuable. He argues that for communication across vastly different commercial, economic, social, cultural, and linguistic contexts to remain legally meaningful, different expectations must be translated into a shared transnational discourse.

2023 ABILA Practitioners Book Award:

Margaret E. McGuiness and David P. Stewart (eds.) for Research Handbook on Law and Diplomacy (Elgar, 2022). Margaret E. McGuiness is Professor of Law, Director of the LL.M in Transnational Legal Practice Program, and Co-Director of St. John’s Center for International and Comparative law at St. John’s University School of Law. David P. Stewart is Professor from Practice, Co-Director of the Global Law Scholars Program, and Director of the Center on Transnational Business and the Law at Georgetown University Law Center. Their book provides insight into the complex, dynamic, and interdependent relationship between international law and diplomacy in the international system. Through analyses of bilateral and multilateral diplomacy in international law making, interpretation, and adjudication, they assess the roles of lawyers, diplomats, and lawyer-diplomats and their professional conduct.

2023 ABILA New Authors Book Award:

Marcela Prieto Rudolphy for The Morality of the Laws of War: War, Law, and Murder (Oxford, 2023). Marcela Prieto Rudolphy is Associate Professor of Law at USC Gould School of Law. Her book provides an assessment of modern ethical thought on killing in wartime and deconstructs the revisionist view of war, which views combatants in an unjust war as innocents and considers their deaths to be murder. She proposes an alternative morality of war and argues that there is moral pressure to improve the laws of war, notably to bring them closer to the ideal where war no longer exists.

2023 ABILA Edited Volume Award:

Jeffrey L. Dunoff and Mark A. Pollack for International Legal Theory (Cambridge University Press, 2022). Jeffrey L. Dunoff is the Laura H. Carnell Professor of Law and Director of LL.M. in Transnational Law Program at Temple University Beasley School of Law. Mark A. Pollack is Professor of Political Science and Law, Jean Monnet Chair, and Director of Global Studies at Temple University. Their volume investigates major developments in the international law field and explores their different approaches’ core assumptions and concepts, analytical tools, and key challenges.

2022: Book of the Year Award

Tom Ginsburg was awarded for Democracies and International Law (Cambridge University Press, 2021). Tom Ginsburg is the Leo Spitz Distinguished Service Professor of International Law, Ludwig and Hilde Wolf Research Scholar, and Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago Law School. Democracies and authoritarian regimes have different approaches to international law, grounded in their different forms of government. As the balance of power between democracies and non-democracies shifts, it will have consequences for international legal order. Human rights may face severe challenges in years ahead, but citizens of democratic countries may still benefit from international legal cooperation in other areas. Ranging across several continents, this volume surveys the state of democracy-enhancing international law, and provides ideas for a way forward in the face of rising authoritarianism.

2022: Practitioners Book Award

James A.R. Nafziger was awarded for Frontiers of Cultural Heritage Law (Brill Nijhoff, 2021). Jim Nafziger is the Thomas B. Stoel Chairholder, Professor of Law and Director of International Programs at Willamette University College of Law. His book covers emerging topics of cultural heritage law, a relatively new landmark in the field of both national and international law. The primary focus is on the frontiers identified and developed by the work products of the ILA’s Committee on Cultural Heritage Law. The construction of cultural heritage law is a good example of transnationalism at work, combining national initiatives with diplomacy, UNESCO and other intergovernmental agreements, international custom, and non-governmental initiatives such as the ILA committee’s own contributions. This volume concludes by briefly exploring current and future frontiers of a burgeoning range of topics that are central to many people’s daily experiences and interests.

2022: New Authors Book Award

David Attanasio was awarded for International Investment Protection for Global Banking and Finance: Legal Principles and Arbitral Practice (Wolters Kluwer, 2021), co-authored with Arif Ali. David Attanasio is an Associate at Dechert LLP. This book is a comprehensive guide to international investment protection in the banking and finance sector and provides the first complete discussion of how international investment law applies to investors and investments in the sector. Global banking and finance is a complex and specialized field with sector-specific investment forms, subject to distinctive legal and regulatory frameworks and unique kinds of political risk. This trailblazing book paves the way for the future consolidation of international investment protection as a critical tool for managing the political risk confronting global banking and finance. Featuring expert guidance on the vital legal protections for cross-border finance and banking investments, along with exhaustive and up-to-date coverage of investor-State cases, the book crystallizes a set of field-specific legal principles for the sector.

2021: Book of the Year Award

Christian M. De Vos was awarded for his book, Complementarity, Catalysts, Compliance: The International Criminal Court in Uganda, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (Cambridge University Press, 2020). The book is about the legitimacy and effectiveness of the International Criminal Court, analyzing its interventions in three “situation countries”: Uganda, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. De Vos examines how the Court’s principle of complementarity came to be framed as “a catalyst for compliance” and its unexpected effects on the domestic legal frameworks, institutions, and criminal prosecutions in these three countries. Drawing on ten years of research, he reaches persuasive and useful conclusions on the role that complementarity can play in the implementation of international criminal law.

2020: Book of the Year Award

Jennifer Trahan was awarded for her book, Existing Legal Limits to Security Council Veto Power in the Face of Atrocity Crimes (Cambridge University Press, 2020). The book considers, in light of existing obligations of international law, the use of the veto power by permanent members of the U.N. Security Council to block Council Action in situations where there is ongoing genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity. Professor Trahan traces a number of such instances, with detailed focus on the crimes in Syria and Darfur — and how vetoes and veto threats, respectively, prevented the Security Council from taking measures it otherwise would have undertaken to try to alleviate the commission of atrocity crimes. She then examines such actions in light of the obligations of international law, specifically, whether such practices accord with (1) the protections due to jus cogens norms; (2) the obligations contained within the U.N. Charter, particularly its “Purposes and Principles,” and (3) the obligations contained within the Genocide and Geneva Conventions. She makes a compelling case that the practice one sees is both far out of line with these existing legal obligations and widely disapproved by U.N. Member States. She suggests this situation is ripe for action in the General Assembly, including the option of requesting the International Court of Justice for an advisory opinion on the legality of such veto use.