Honors and Awards
ASIL Honors
Call for Honors Nominations
2025-2026 ASIL Honors
The 2025–2026 ASIL Honors Committee (Catherine Powell (chair), Chimene Keitner, Mónica Pinto, Tracy Roosevelt, Dire Tladi) invites nominations (including self-nominations) for the following honors:The Manley O. Hudson Medal
Awarded to a distinguished person of American or other nationality for outstanding contributions to scholarship and achievement in international law.The Goler T. Butcher Medal
Awarded to a distinguished person of American or other nationality for outstanding contributions to the development or effective realization of international human rights.The Honorary Member Award
Conferred on an individual of American or other nationality who has rendered distinguished contributions or service in the field of international law.ASIL Book Awards
Call for Book Award Nominations is live.The 2025–2026 Book Awards Committee (Kabir Duggal (chair), Adejoké Babington-Ashaye, Steven Schneebaum, Guillermo Garcia Sanchez, Tim Sellers, and Meg deGuzman) is now accepting nominations for the 2026 ASIL Book Awards.
Pursuant to the Regulation on the Book Awards Committee, and as stated in the Call for Nominations, the deadline for nominations is October 1, 2025. Publishers may nominate up to ten books for Certificates of Merit and up to three books for the Robert E. Dalton Award. All books must be published prior to October 1 but not earlier than February 1, 2024.)
ASIL will accept electronic books (e-books) for consideration. Publishers should send e-books to awardsandhonors@asil.org. Publishers must also send at least one physical paper copy of each book to ASIL’s headquarters by the October 1 deadline to be eligible to participate in the book awards process. Publishers will also mail a book to any committee member who is unable to read e-books or if the book is unavailable as an e-book.
Please contact awardsandhonors@asil.org with questions.
Awards will be presented at the Society's Annual Meeting.
American Society of International Law
ASIL Book Awards Committee
2223 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20008
2025 Certificate of Merit winners:
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Certificate of Merit for a preeminent contribution to creative scholarship: Godwin Eli Kwadzo Dzah, Sustainable Development, International Law, and a Turn to African Legal Cosmologies (Cambridge University Press, 2024)
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Certificate of Merit for high technical craftsmanship and utility to lawyers and scholars: Matiangai V. S. Sirleaf (ed.), Race and National Security (Oxford University Press, 2023)
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Certificate of Merit in a specialized area of international law: Natalie Jones, Self-Determination as Voice (Cambridge University Press, 2024)
- Robert E. Dalton Award for Outstanding Contribution in the Field of Foreign Relations Law: Sean D. Murphy and Edward T. Swaine, The Law of U.S. Foreign Relations (Oxford University Press, 2023)
View 2024-2025 Book Awards Committee Report
2024 Certificate of Merit winners:
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Certificate of Merit for a preeminent contribution to creative scholarship: Immi Tallgren, ed., Portraits of Women in International Law: New Names and Forgotten Faces? (Oxford University Press 2023)
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Certificate of Merit for high technical craftsmanship and utility to lawyers and scholars: Esmé Shirlow and Kiran Nasir Gore, eds., The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties in Investor-State Disputes: History, Evolution and Future (Wolters Kluwer, 2022)
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Certificate of Merit in a specialized area of international law: Michael Byers and Aaron Boley, Who Owns Outer Space? International Law, Astrophysics, and the Sustainable Development of Space (Cambridge University Press, 2023) and Tommaso Pavone, The Ghostwriters: Lawyers and the Politics Behind the Judicial Construction of Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2022)
- Robert E. Dalton Award for Outstanding Contribution in the Field of Foreign Relations Law: Sean D. Murphy and Edward T. Swaine, The Law of U.S. Foreign Relations (Oxford University Press, 2023)
2023 Certificate of Merit winners:
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Certificate of Merit for a preeminent contribution to creative scholarship: René Provost, Rebel Courts. The Administration of Justice by Armed Insurgents (Oxford University Press 2021)
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Certificate of Merit for high technical craftsmanship and utility to lawyers and scholars: Damilola S. Olawuyi Environmental Law in Arab States (Oxford University Press, 2022)
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Certificate of Merit in a specialized area of international law: Boyd van Dijk Preparing for War: The Making of the Geneva Conventions (Oxford University Press, 2022)
- Robert E. Dalton Award for Outstanding Contribution in the Field of Foreign Relations Law: Lisa Ford, The King’s Peace (Harvard University Press, 2021) and Tom Ginsburg, Democracies and International Law (Cambridge University Press, 2021)
2022 Certificate of Merit winners:
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Certificate of Merit for a preeminent contribution to creative scholarship: Ntina Tzouvala, Capitalism as Civilisation: A History of International Law (Cambridge University Press, 2020)
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Certificate of Merit for high technical craftsmanship and utility to lawyers and scholars: Amal Clooney & Philippa Webb The Right to a Fair Trial in International Law (Oxford University Press, 2021)
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Certificate of Merit in a specialized area of international law: Mira L. Siegelberg Statelessness: A Modern History (Harvard University Press, 2020)
- Robert E. Dalton Award for Outstanding Contribution in the Field of Foreign Relations Law: Paul B. Stephan and Sarah H. Cleveland, eds., The Restatement and Beyond: The Past, Present, and Future of U.S. Foreign Relations Law (Oxford University Press, 2020)
2021 Certificate of Merit winners:
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Certificate of Merit for a preeminent contribution to creative scholarship: Francine Hirsch, Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg: A New History of the International Military Tribunal after World War II (Oxford University Press, 2020)
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Certificate of Merit for high technical craftsmanship and utility to lawyers and scholars: Janet Blake & Lucas Lixinski, eds., The 2003 UNESCO Intangible Heritage Convention: A Commentary (Oxford University Press, 2020)
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Certificate of Merit in a specialized area of international law: Jerome A. Cohen, William P. Alford & Chang-fa Lo, eds, Taiwan and International Human Rights: A Story of Transformation (Springer Nature, 2019)
- Robert E. Dalton Award for Outstanding Contribution in the Field of Foreign Relations Law: Curtis A. Bradley, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Foreign Relations Law (Oxford University Press, 2019)
2020 Certificate of Merit winners:
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Certificate of Merit for a preeminent contribution to creative scholarship: Loveday Hodson & Troy Lavers, Feminist Judgments in International Law (Hart Publishing, 2019)
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Certificate of Merit for high technical craftsmanship and utility to lawyers and scholars: John Tobin, The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: A Commentary (Oxford University Press, 2019)
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Certificate of Merit in a specialized area of international law: Fernando Lusa Bordin, The Analogy between States and International Organizations (Cambridge University Press, 2019)
2019 Certificate of Merit winners:
The Society congratulates the winners of Certificates of Merit and Honorable Mentions for 2019:-
Certificate of Merit for a preeminent contribution to creative scholarship: Craig Forcese, Destroying the Caroline: The Frontier Raid that Reshaped the Right to War (Irwin Law Inc)
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Certificate of Merit for high technical craftsmanship and utility to practicing lawyers and scholars: Rosalyn Higgins, Philippa Webb, Dapo Akande, Sandesh Sivakumaran, and James Sloan, Oppenheim's International Law: United Nations Volumes I and II (Oxford)
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Certificate of Merit in a specialized area of international law: Maureen F. Tehan, Lee C. Godden, Margaret A. Young, and Kirsty A. Gover, The Impact of Climate Change Mitigation on Indigenous and Forest Communities (Cambridge)
2019 Honorable Mentions:
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Certificate of Merit for high technical craftsmanship and utility to practicing lawyers and scholars: C. Donald Johnson, The Wealth of a Nation (Oxford)
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Certificate of Merit in a specialized area of international law: Orna Ben-Naftali, Michael Sfard, and Hedi Viterbo, The ABC of the OPT (Cambridge)
2018 Certificate of Merit winners:
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Certificate of Merit for a preeminent contribution to creative scholarship: Anthea Roberts, Is International Law International? (Oxford)
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Certificate of Merit in a specialized area of international law: Daniel Bodansky, Jutta Brunnée, and Lavanya Rajamani, International Climate Change Law, (Oxford)
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Certificate of Merit for high technical craftsmanship and utility to practicing lawyers and scholars: Jürgen Basedow, Giesela Rühl, Franco Ferrari, and Pedro de Miguel Asensio, Encyclopedia of Private International Law (Edward Elgar)
2017 Certificate of Merit winners:
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Certificate of Merit for a preeminent contribution to creative scholarship: David Sloss, The Death of Treaty Supremacy: An Invisible Constitutional Change (Oxford)
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Certificate of Merit in a specialized area of international law: Petros Mavroidis, The Regulation of International Trade, Volumes One and Two (The MIT Press)
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Certificate of Merit for high technical craftsmanship and utility to practicing lawyers and scholars: Andrew Clapham, Paola Gaeta, and Marco Sassóli, The 1949 Geneva Conventions: A Commentary (Oxford)
2016 Certificate of Merit winners:
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Certificate of Merit for a preeminent contribution to creative scholarship: Isabel V. Hull, A Scrap of Paper: Breaking and Making International Law During the Great War (Cornell, 2014)
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Certificate of Merit in a specialized area of international law: Odette Lienau, Rethinking Sovereign Debt: Politics, Reputation, and Legitimacy in Modern Finance (Harvard, 2014)
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Certificate of Merit for high technical craftsmanship and utility to practicing lawyers and scholars: William A. Schabas, The European Convention on Human Rights: A Commentary (Oxford, 2015)
View all previous certificate winners
David D. Caron Prize

David D. Caron
David D. Caron Prize Recipients
- 2024: Sebastian von Massow, the European University Institute, "Redrawing Trade Routes Through Litigation: Phosphates and the Front Polisario in Panama and South Africa"
- 2023: Tobias Traxler, European University Institute, "Issues of Timing and Pro-Claimant Bias in Arbitration Selection"
- 2022: Dr. Chen Yu, National University of Singapore, "International Adjudication as Interactional Law-Making"
- 2021: Shiri Krebs, Associate Professor of Law, Deakin Law School, "The Effects of Visual Evidence on the Application of International Humanitarian Law: A behavioural approach"
- 2020: Tatsiana Ziniakova, Wake Forest University School of Law, "Gender-Based Violence in International Human Rights Law: Evolution towards a Binding Post-Binary Framework"
- 2019: Yanbai Andrea Wang, Stanford Law School, "Exporting American Discovery"
- 2018 (inaugural): Léon Castellanos-Jankiewicz, T.M.C. Asser Institute, "Nationalism, Alienage, and Early International Rights"
Deák Prize

Francis Deák