Phanor J. Eder Prize in Comparative Law

The Phanor J. Eder Prize is named after the first president of the American Society of Comparative Law. It is awarded in recognition of the best paper written by an undergraduate law student, J.D. or LL.B., in response to the Call for Papers for every annual meeting of the YCC. Submissions are open to any student writing on public or private comparative law, and the selected author will receive a stipend toward presenting their work at a YCC forum.

Prize Winners:

2022:
- Recipient: Ian R. Maddox, J.D. Candidate ’23, University of North Carolina School of Law, South Africa’s Dormant Emergency Clause and the Value of an Emergency Constitution
2021:
- Recipient: Jane Tien, Duke University School of Law, “Fighting Words: Catalonia at the Language Instructions Crossroads”
- Honorable Mention: Robin Liu, Duke University School of Law, “Giving the People a Voice Where It Counts: A Presumption in Favor of Allowing Permanent Residents to Vote in Local Elections”
2020:
- Recipient: Hayley N. Lawrence, Duke University School of Law, “A Comparative Study of the Political Question Doctrine: Cases of Political Failures in the United States and the United Kingdom”
- Honorable Mention: Alexander Bednar, Duke University School of Law, “Democratic Backsliding and Attacks on an Independent Judiciary: A Comparative Analysis of Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia”
2019:
- Recipient: Emily Hazen, Gonzaga University School of Law, “Restructuring US Military Justice Through a Comparative Analysis of Israel Defense Forces”
- Honorable Mention: Samridda Sen and Atreya Chakraborty, Department of Law, University of Calcutta, “Regulating Political Financing in India: A “Legal Perspective on the Case Study of Electoral Reform”
2018:
- Recipient: Alec Duncan, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, “The Long Shadow of Constituent Power: An Historical Critique”
- First Honorable Mention: Blake van Santen, Queen’s Law School, “The Separation of Powers in the United States and Canada”
- Second Honorable Mention: Wei Xuan, National University of Singapore, “Fight or Flight? – Contextualizing Judicial Strategic Responses Towards Court-Curbing Measures in Indonesia and Singapore”
2017:
- Recipient: Megan K. Bradley, J.D. Candidate, 2018, Florida State University College of Law, “The Failure of Fact Pleading in the American System: Why the Convergence of Pleading Standards is Not Working and Comparative Solutions to How it Can be Fixed”
- First Honorable Mention: Jaka Kukavica, LL.B. Candidate, 2017, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Law, Slovenia, “National Consensus and the Eighth Amendment: Is There Something to be Learned from the United States Supreme Court”
- Second Honorable Mention: Shir Fulga, J.D. Candidate, 2018, Queen’s University, Faculty of Law, Canada, ““…And Democratic”: Israeli Constitutional Law Through Canadian Eyes”
2016:
- Recipient: Thomas Patrick, Boston College Law School, “The Zeitgeist of Secession Amidst the March Toward Unification: Scotland, Catalonia, and the Future of the European Union”
- First Honorable Mention: Tierney O’Rourke, Stanford Law School, “Judicial Independence and Foreign Investment: The Argentine Experience”
- Second Honorable Mention: Rachel Schatz, Tulane University Law School, “Forum Non Conveniens and the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act: The Seventh Circuit Illustrates the Art of Rejecting Jurisdiction”
2015:
- Recipient: Tom Brower, J.D. Candidate, University of Virginia School of Law, “Constitutions as Counter-Curses: Revenue Allocation Institutions and the Resource Curse”
- First Honorable Mention: Philip M. Thoennes, J.D. Candidate, Lewis & Clark Law School, “Eo Nomine: The Divergence of State and Foreign Immunity”
- Second Honorable Mention: Julian Yang, J.D. Candidate, Queen’s University Faculty of Law, “Comparative Analysis of Merger Control Under Chinese Anti-Monopoly Law”
2014:
- Recipient: Tom Brower, J.D. Candidate, University of Virginia School of Law, “The Tide of the Times? A Sectoral Approach to Latin America’s Resistance to the Investor-State Arbitration System”
- First Honorable Mention: Geoffrey Yeung, LL.B. Candidate, Hong Kong University Faculty of Law, “Religious Exemptions in Sexual Orientation Anti-Discrimination Laws: A Comparative Study”
- Second Honorable Mention: Lawrence David, BCL/LL.B. Candidate, McGill University Faculty of Law, “Subnational Constitutionalism and the Concurrent Protection of Religious Freedom: Canada-Quebec Federalism”
2013:
- Recipient: Yaron Nili, S.J.D. Candidate, Harvard Law School, “Missing the Forest for the Trees: A New Approach to Shareholder Activism”
- Honorable Mentions:
  - Alan Koh, LL.B. candidate, National University of Singapore Faculty of Law, LL.M. candidate, Boston University School of Law, “Appraising Japan’s Appraisal Remedy”
  - Zhao Chen, J.S.D. Candidate, Washington University—St. Louis, “The Interpretation of ‘Public Use’ in the United States and China and its Relation to Economic Development”
  - Scott Stephenson, J.S.D. Candidate, Yale Law School, “Is the New Commonwealth Model of Constitutionalism Exportable?”
2012:
- In 2012 the YCC awarded a prize to the best paper presented at its first Annual Conference that year to Jill I. Goldenziel, Harvard University, for her paper “Veiled Political Questions: Islamic Dress, Constitutionalism, and the Ascendance of Courts”

Colin B. Picker Graduate Prize

Awarded in recognition of the best paper submitted by a graduate student to the annual YCC Global Conference. Named in honor of the founding chair of the YCC.

Prize Winners:

2022:
- Recipient: Sam Bookman, S.J.D. Candidate & Byse Fellow, Harvard Law School, “Three Constitutional Responses to Environmental Crises (Or, What We Talk About When We Talk About ‘Environmental Constitutionalism’)”
- Honorable Mentions:
  - Jonathan Brosseau-Rioux, Ph.D. Candidate, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and McGill University, “A Jurisdictional Framework for Resolving ‘Ethical’ Issues Related to Party Representation: Distinguishing the Procedural from the Deontological”
  - Sandra M.T. Magalang, J.S.D. Candidate, Yale Law School, and Ana Beatriz Robalinho, J.S.D. Candidate, Yale Law School, “A Roadmap to Democratic Backsliding: Lessons from the Global South”
2021:
- Recipient: Weilin Xiao, J.S.D. Candidate, Yale Law School, “Expansion and Restriction: A Comparative Study of Modernization of Family Laws in Japan and China, 1868-1930”
- Honorable Mention: Ernesto Vargas Weil, Ph.D. student and Associate Lecturer (Teaching), The University College London (UCL) Faculty of Laws, “The Numerus Clausus as a Constitutional Rule of Property Law: a Macro-Comparative Approach”
2020:
- Recipient: Yiran Zhang, S.J.D. Candidate, Harvard Law School, “Rethinking the Global Governance of Migrant Domestic Workers: The Heterodox Case of Informal Filipina Workers in China”
- Honorable Mention: Emre Turkut, Ph.D. Candidate, Ghent University, “Emergency Powers, Constitutional (Self-) Restraint and Judicial Politics: The Turkish Constitutional Court in an Authoritarian Setting”
2019:
- Recipient: Achalie M. Kumarage, American University, “Oversimplifying Legal Realities: Gender Indicators and Aspiring Law Reforms Based on Skewed Outcomes”
- Honorable Mention: Rafi Reznik, Georgetown University, “Purposive Originalism: The Rise of American Conservatism in Israel”
2018:
- Recipient: Alan Koh, National Singapore University, “Shareholder Protection in Close Corporations: The Curious Case of Japan”
2017:
- Recipient: Dustin Klaudt, Osgoode Hall Law School, “Can Canada’s “Living Tree” Constitution and Lessons From Foreign Climate Litigation Seed Climate Justice and Remedy Climate?”
- Honorable Mentions:
  - Daniele D’Alvia, Birkbeck, University of London, “The Remarkable Story of SPACs Between a Legal Standardised Regulation and a Standardisation by Market Practices”
  - Yincheng Hsu, University of Glasgow, “Virtual Cultures, Cultural Rights and Self-regulation”
  - Anna Lukina, Hertford College, University of Oxford, “Russia v ECtHR – Resistance or Dialogue: a Comparative Analysis”
2016:
- Recipient: Soterios Loizou, University of Cambridge and Harvard Law School, “Deconstructing Second Parallel Legal Regimes: The Peculiar Case of Applying Foreign Law”
- Honorable Mentions:
  - Doron Dorfman, Stanford Law School, “The Inaccessible Road to Motherhood—The Tragic Consequence of Not Having Reproductive Policies for Israelis with Disabilities”
  - Vera Korzun, Fordham University School of Law, “Arbitrating Antitrust Claims: From Suspicion to Trust”
2015:
- Recipient: Katharine Schmidt, Yale Law School, “De-Naturalizing ‘American Legal Exceptionalism’: Early 20th Century Trans-Atlantic Divergences and Contemporary Comparative Law Scholarship”
- Honorable Mentions:
  - Shoaib Ghias, University of California, Berkeley School of Law, “Defining Shari’a: Stoning and the Politics of Islamic Judicial Review”
  - Benjamin Chen & Li Zhiyu, University of California, Berkeley School of Law, “Who May Sue the One-Party Dominated State”
2014:
- Recipient: Gilat Bachar, J.S.D. Candidate, Stanford University, “The Occupation of the Law: Power Dynamics Between the Israeli Judiciary and Legislature Over Controlling Palestinians’ Tort Claims Against IDF”
- Honorable Mentions:
  - Itay Ravid, J.S.D. Candidate, Stanford University, “Watch & Learn”: Illegal Behavior and Obedience to Legal Norms Through the Eyes of Popular Culture: The Case of Popular American and Israeli TV Shows”
  - Alan K. Koh & Chun Zhou, LL.M. Candidate, Boston University; Ph.D. Candidate, Peking University, “Enforcing Corporate Governance in China: Or Why We Should Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the CSRC”

Richard M. Buxbaum Prize for Teaching in Comparative Law

Awarded to an untenured scholar in a tenure-track position at an ASCL Member School in recognition of teaching excellence in any subject of comparative law. Named in honor of the 2014 recipient of the ASLC Lifetime Achievement Award.

Prize Winners:

2017: Jabeur Fathally, University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law
2016: Timothy Webster, Case Western Reserve University School of Law
2015: Inaugural Prize: Kirsten Anker, McGill University, Faculty of Law