CCIL Awards for Excellence in Scholarship

To recognize the work of Canadian scholars of international law, each year, the CCIL conducts a competition for Excellence in Scholarship, alternating between scholarly books and scholarly papers that make a substantial contribution to the international law literature.

CCIL Scholarly Book Award

The Scholarly Book Award is conducted every two years for scholarly books that make a substantial contribution to the international law literature.

SUBMISSION PROCESS CLOSED
Next Submission year: 2028

(for books published in 2026 and 2027)

CCIL Scholarly Book Award Recipients

2024 Scholarly Book Award Recipient

2024 Winner

The CCIL is pleased to announce that Professor Neil Craik (Balsillie School of International Affairs, University of Waterloo) has been selected as the recipient of the 2024 Scholarly Book Award for his book "Liability for Environmental Harm to the Global Commons" (Cambridge University Press, 2023). The book is co-authored by Dr. Tara Davenport (National University of Singapore) and Ruth Mackenzie (Reader in International Law, University of Westminster).

Neil Craik is a Professor at the University of Waterloo with appointments to the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development and the Balsillie School of International Affairs, where he teaches and researches in the fields of international and Canadian environmental law. His research interests are in climate and geoengineering law and governance, deep seabed mining regulation and environmental impact assessment.

Liability for Environmental Harm to the Global Commons_Neil Craik, Tara Davenport, Ruth Ma

Runner-Up

The award committee would also like to acknowledge Professor Wolfgang Alschner's book “Investment Arbitration and State-Driven Reform” (Oxford University Press, 2022) which has been selected as the runner-up.

Wolfgang Alschner is an Associate Professor at the Common Law Section with cross-appointment to the Faculty of Engineering, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Ottawa. He holds the Hyman Soloway Chair in Business and Trade Law. He is also a faculty member of the Centre for Law, Technology and Society at the University of Ottawa and heads the uOttawa Legal Technology Lab.

Investment Arbitration and State-Driven Reform_Wolfgang Alschner.jpg

2022 Scholarly Book Award Recipient

The CCIL is pleased to announce that Professor Miriam Cohen has been selected as the 2022 recipient of the CCIL Scholarly Book Award for her book “Realizing Reparative Justice for International Crimes: From Theory to Practice", Cambridge University Press, 2020.

2022 Winner

Professor Miriam Cohen's book is a timely and important contribution to the field of international criminal law and international criminal justice. The unique focus of the book on reparations and the contour of reparative justice is fresh and innovative. Its wider contributions to the jurisprudence of the field were acknowledged by the Committee.

Miriam Cohen is an Associate Professor and holds the Canada Research Chair on Human Rights and International Reparative Justice at University of Montreal’s Faculty of Law, where she teaches and researches in international, public and human rights law. She is also a researcher at the Centre de recherche en droit public (CRDP), the Centre international de criminologie comparée (CICC) and the Centre d'études et de recherches internationales (CÉRIUM). Read more...

Runner-Up

The Scholarly Books Award Committee also acknowledges the significance of Professor Kent Roach's book “Remedies for Violations of Human Rights: A Two-Track Approach to National and Supra-National Law", CUP 2021. The book ambitiously interrogates the question of remedies for human rights violations from a national and supra-national context.

Kent Roach is Professor of Law at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. Read more...

2020 Scholarly Book Award Recipient

The CCIL is pleased to announce that Professor Adelle Blackett has been selected as the 2020 recipient of the CCIL Scholarly Book Award for her book “Everyday Transgressions: Domestic Workers’ Transnational Challenge to International Labor Law”.

2020 Winner

Professor Blackett’s book is an eloquent narrative on a novel subject. The author’s unique perspective of the story behind the creation of the ILO’s Decent Work for Domestic Workers Convention No. 189 and Recommendation No. 201 brings an innovative approach to the book. The book’s originality and rigorous discussion of a timely topic made a substantial contribution to the international law literature. The book demonstrates the role played by cross-border movements within and beyond international institutions in the making of new rules of international law; specifically, in this case, the development of the Domestic Workers Convention within the International Labour Organization.

Adelle Blackett, Ad. E., F.R.S.C., is a Professor of Law and the Canada Research Chair in Transnational Labour Law and Development at the Faculty of Law, McGill University. Read more...

Runner-Up

In addition, Professor Patrick Dumberry’s book “A Guide to State Succession in International Investment Law” has been selected as the runner-up in acknowledgement of high technical mastery in a novel area of scholarship, and specifically: its utility for arbitration practitioners, the wealth of sources it draws upon and provides to the reader, and the expert analysis contained within a study, bringing together the law on state succession and the law on foreign investment.

Patrick Dumberry is Full Professor at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law (Civil Law Section). Read more...

2026 Scholarly Book Award Recipient

The CCIL is pleased to announce that Professor Frédéric Mégret, Hans & Tamar Oppenheimer Chair in Public International Law, McGill University, has been selected as the recipient of the 2026 Scholarly Book Award for his book “Interference in Sovereign Affairs and the Discursive Economy of International Law” (Brill, Nijhoff: 2025).

2026 Winner

Professor Mégret's book is a splendid contribution to the study of international law, is highly original, and could not be more relevant. In a world characterised by amorphous threats to sovereignty, this contribution creatively moves beyond doctrinal considerations of international law and examines its foundational concepts (i.e. “sovereignty”, “interference”, and “non-interference”) as part of the marketplace of ideas that are valued, de-valued and traded by states to legitimize behavior.

Frédéric Mégret is a Professor of Law and the holder of the Hans & Tamar Oppenheimer Chair in Public International Law. Previously he was a William Dawson Scholar from 2015 to 2023, and the holder of the Canada Research Chair on the Law of Human Rights and Legal Pluralism from 2006 to 2015. In 2024-25, Professor Mégret was the James S. Carpentier Visiting Professor at Columbia Law School.Read full bio.

Runner-Up

The awards committee would also like to acknowledge the book by Professor Camille Marquis Bissonnette entitled "Le terme terrorisme et ses incidences sur la protection des personnes en droit international" Terrorisme, le mot qui blesse ? (Larcier Intersentia, Éditions Bruylant 1ère édition 2024) which has been selected as the runner-up.

Camille Marquis Bissonnette is a professor of law at the Université du Québec en Outaouais and Vice-President of the Société québécoise de droit international. Read more...