The International Law in the XXI Century Award

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International Law in the XXI Century Award. Results of 10 years and the 10th Competition
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We are pleased to announce the twelfth Competition for the International Law in the XXI Century Award for the best research paper in public international law.

The winner of the Competition is granted International Law in the XXI Century Award, an Award diploma, and a monetary prize in the amount of 500,000 roubles (before income tax).

A group of Russian experts in public international law, including Vladlen Vereschetin, Roman Kolodkin, Sergey Punzhin, Leonid Skotnikov, Bakhtiyar Tuzmukhamedov, and Aleksandr Khodakov came up with the idea of establishing the Award.

The Competition is held annually. Its objectives include promoting and fostering in-depth research in public international law and supporting original research within the field. Results of 10 years  

The Competition is held with the support of the law firm Ivanyan and Partners and the academic journal International Justice.

Participants in the Competition may use the resources of the ICLRC Library for the preparation of their research papers.

Conditions

The Competition is held in accordance with the Regulation on the Competition and the Rules for the Submission of Competition Materials .

To be admitted to the Competition, a submitted research paper must meet the following requirements:

    • the research paper must include an abstract not exceeding 1,000 characters
    • the volume of the research paper must be not less than 40,000 and not more than 80,000 characters, including spaces
    • the research paper may be submitted in Russian or English
    • the research paper must address one or more thematic areas defined in Annex 1 to the Rules for the Submission of Competition Materials

The Competition is open to citizens of the Russian Federation under the age of 35 inclusive (as of the date of the announcement of the Competition), who hold a completed higher legal education and/or an academic degree in law.

Strict compliance of the submitted documentation with all the requirements set out in the Regulation on the Competition and the Rules for the Submission of Competition Materials is required.

Evaluation of papers

The winner of the Competition is selected by the Award Council, consisting of prominent experts in the field of international law.

In assessing the research papers, the Award Council considers, inter alia, the depth of the research on the chosen topic, the originality of the work and the practical significance of its conclusions, the quality of the analysis of the applicable law, the use of up-to-date doctrine, the logic and clarity of argumentation, and the degree of substantiation of the statements made.

Plagiarism is strictly prohibited. The Organiser verifies papers for plagiarism, including through the use of automated systems. The Award Council will be informed of any instances of plagiarism or improper borrowing.

In addition to selecting the Award Winner, the Council may also decide to give special recognition to one or more research papers submitted to the Competition of the same year.

Deadlines

The paper and other required materials must be submitted by 9 March 2026—by e-mail to prize@iclrc.ru  and/or by filling out the form on this webpage.

The results of the Competition will be announced no later than 30 June 2026, unless otherwise determined in accordance with the Regulation on the Competition.

Prize winners

Associate at Clifford Chance (international arbitration and litigation). Holds an LLB from Lomonosov Moscow State University (2015) and an MJur from the University of Oxford (2016), where he was a Hill scholar and awarded the Volterra Fietta Prize for International Dispute Settlement. In 2018, the London Court of International Arbitration awarded him the Gillis Wetter Memorial Prize for International Arbitration.

Award winning paper The role of equity in the assessment of damages under custom: where are Diallo and the Arctic Sunrise taking the law?

A graduate of the IKBFU
(Kaliningrad) and the
Georg-August-Universität
Göttingen (Germany). In 2023,
he successfully defended a
PhD thesis at the University
of Göttingen. Aleksei specializes
in international law and is
experienced in inter-State
litigation (WTO). Currently,
he works at the ICLRC on issues
linked to public international law
and teaches related subjects at
the Higher School of Economics
(Moscow). 

Award winning paper Economic sanctions and challenge of these in the WTO in the context of the national security exceptions (GATT Article XXI:(b)(iii))

Outstanding works