10 Years of the Competition for the Award for the Best Research in International Law "International Law in the XXI Century"
The tenth anniversary Competition for the International Law in the XXI Century Award has concluded, and we would like to summarise some of the results from the past years.
The founders of the Competition—Vladlen Vereshchetin, Roman Kolodkin, Sergey Punzhin, Leonid Skotnikov, Bakhtiyar Tuzmukhamedov, and Aleksandr Khodakov, who formed the first Board of Trustees—saw the main tasks of the Competition as encouraging in-depth study of public international law, identifying promising areas of international legal regulation, seeking new approaches in this field, as well as supporting original research on current issues of public international law and disseminating knowledge about it.
From 2014 to 2016, the organisation of the Competition was handled by the Foundation for Legal Education and Research, and since 2017, this role has been performed by the International and Comparative Law Research Center. The Competition has been supported at different times by the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum Foundation and the law firm "Ivanyan and Partners." The prize fund of the Competition is formed not only from the organiser’s funds but also from private donations—from members of the Board of Trustees and the law firm "Ivanyan and Partners". The information partner of the Competition is the journal "International Justice” [Mezhdunarodnoye pravosudie].
The evaluation of research works within the Competition is carried out by the Award Council, which includes renowned Russian and international specialists in international law. At different times, the Council has included more than 20 professors from Russian and foreign universities, diplomats, officials of international organisations, judges of international courts and tribunals, advocates and counsel involved in international litigation.
Members of the Award Council of diffirent years (the acting ones are highlited):
Adel Ilsiyarovich Abdullin — Doctor of Law, Professor, Head of the Department of International and European Law at Kazan Federal University
Gabriela Belova-Ganeva — Doctor of Law, Head of the Department of International Law and International Relations at the South-West University "Neofit Rilski" (Blagoevgrad), Professor, Member of the Bulgarian Association of International Law and the Bulgarian Association of European Law
Yuri Sergeevich Bezborodov — Doctor of Law, Professor of the Department of International Law at the Ural State Law University named after V. F. Yakovlev, Professor at the Ural Federal University named after the First President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin
Daria Sergeevna Boklan — Doctor of Law, Professor, Deputy Head of the Department of International Law at the Faculty of Law of the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE)
Vladlen Stepanovich Vereshchetin — Doctor of Law, Professor, Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation, Member of the International Court of Justice (1995-2006), Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (1984-1995)
Khristofor Viktorovich Ivanyan — Partner at the law firm "Ivanyan and Partners"
Alexey Stanislavovich Ispolinov — Doctor of Law, Associate Professor, Head of the Department of International Law at the Faculty of Law of Lomonosov Moscow State University (2009-2018)
Roman Anatolievich Kolodkin — Candidate of Law, Judge of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, Member of the Institute of International Law (Institut de Droit International)
Sergey Yurievich Marochkin — Doctor of Law, Professor, Honored Lawyer of the Russian Federation, Laureate of the F. F. Martens Prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Member of the European Society of International Law, Member of the Executive Committee of the Russian Association of International Law, Head of the Laboratory of International and Comparative Legal Studies at Tyumen State University
Rein Müllerson — Doctor of Law, Honorary Professor at Tallinn University, Member of the Institute of International Law (Institut de Droit International), Member of the UN Human Rights Committee, Professor and Head of the Department of International Law at King's College London (1994-2009), First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia (1991-1992)
Tatyana Nikolaevna Neshataeva — Doctor of Law, Professor, Honored Lawyer of the Russian Federation, Head of the Department of International Law at the Russian State University of Justice, Vice-President of the Russian Association of International Law, Judge of the Court of the Eurasian Economic Union (2015-2023)
Natalya Vladimirovna Pavlova — Candidate of Law, Associate Professor of the Department of International Law at the Russian State University of Justice, Judge of the Court of the Eurasian Economic Union
Sergey Mikhailovich Punzhin — Candidate of Law, Principal Legal Secretary, Head of the Department of Legal Matters, Registry, the International Court of Justice, Associate Member of the Institute of International Law (Institut de Droit International)
Vera Nikolaevna Rusinova — Doctor of Law, Head of the Department of International Law at the Faculty of Law of the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE)
Leonid Alekseevich Skotnikov — Member of the International Court of Justice (2006-2015), Permanent Representative to the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva, as well as to the Conference on Disarmament (2001-2005), Director of the Legal Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1991-1992, 1998-2001), Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to the Netherlands (1992-1998)
Natalya Alexandrovna Sokolova — Doctor of Law, Associate Professor, Head of the Department of International Law, Scientific Director of the Research Institute at the Moscow State Law University named after O. E. Kutafin (MSAL)
Bakhtiyar Raisovich Tuzmukhamedov — Professor of International Law, Honored Lawyer of the Russian Federation, Vice-President of the Russian Association of International Law, Member of the Committee Against Torture, ad hoc Judge of the European Court of Human Rights in the case "Ukraine v. Russia", Judge of the First Instance of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Judge of the Appeals Chamber of the UN International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the Former Yugoslavia (2009-2015)
Anita Ušacka — Doctor of Law, Judge of the International Criminal Court (Trial Division, 2003-2009; Appeals Division, 2009-2015), Professor at the University of Latvia (2002), Retired Judge of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia (1996-2004)
Alexander Georgievich Khodakov — Director of the Legal Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1994-1998), Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to the Netherlands, Permanent Representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (1998-2003), Director of the Office of Special Projects, Director of the Secretariat of the Governing Bodies of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (2004-2011), Special Advisor to the Registrar of the International Criminal Court on External Relations and Cooperation (2011-2015)
Ivana Hrdličková — Doctor of Law, Judge, President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (2015-2023)
Vladimir Mikhailovich Shumilov — Doctor of Law, Professor, Head of the Department of International Law at the Russian Foreign Trade Academy, Honored Lawyer of the Russian Federation.
In evaluating the works, the Award Council considers the depth of research on the chosen topic, the originality and practical significance of the conclusions, the quality of the analysis of applicable law, the use of current doctrine, the clarity and coherence of presentation, and the degree of substantiation of the formulated theses. After the evaluation stage, the final decision on the granting of the Award and the selection of specially noted works is taken by a simple majority of votes of its members. When reviewing the works and selecting the best ones, the members of the Council do not know who the authors are.
The International and Comparative Law Research Center is sincerely grateful to each member of the Award Council, its Chairpersons R. A. Kolodkin (2015–2019) and N. A. Sokolova (2020–present), the partners and sponsors of the Competition, whose enthusiastic and active participation has ensured the successful conduct of the Competition over these years.
Over the past 10 years, 106 authors have participated in the Competition. Eleven of them submitted works twice, two submitted three times, and one participant submitted five times. A total of 125 entries were submitted. They addressed both general issues of international law (e.g., sources of international law, responsibility in international law, immunities, sanctions) and specific issues of international trade and investment law, international human rights law, international humanitarian law, law of the sea, international environmental law, international air and space law, as well as international justice and many other areas.
Eight authors have become Award laureates, and 18 works were specially noted by the Award Council. Many of these works were recommended for publication.
Among the participants of the Competition are young international lawyers who have obtained their legal education and/or academic degrees in law from universities in:
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Russia (Moscow, Vladivostok, Vologda, Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk, Kazan, Kaliningrad, Krasnoyarsk, Nalchik, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, St. Petersburg, Saransk, Saratov, Stavropol, Syktyvkar, Tomsk, Ulyanovsk, Khabarovsk, Chelyabinsk)
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Austria (Graz)
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The United Kingdom (London, Cambridge, Oxford, Edinburgh)
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Germany (Hamburg, Göttingen)
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The Netherlands (Leiden)
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The USA (Washington, D.C.).
Although only a few of them received the main prize, we hope that the experience of writing research papers evaluated by an authoritative jury has allowed all participants to improve their research skills and helped them find their path in international law.
We wish the Competition many more successful years, all new participants courage and good luck, and we thank everyone who over the past 10 years has submitted works, evaluated them, and provided financial and informational support for the Competition.