Jeff King wins Peter Birks Prize

The announcement was made on 10 September at The Society of Legal Scholars Annual Conference, taking place at the University of Nottingham between 9 – 12 September.

The Peter Birks Prize is awarded to scholars in their early careers for published books, which are judged by the President of The Society of Legal Studies, the Vice-President, and the Immediate Past President. First prizewinners receive an award of £1,000, and second prizewinners £300.

Dr King’s winning book, Judging Social Rights, is published by Cambridge University Press as part of the series, Cambridge Studies in Constitutional Law. It presents an argument for why, under the right conditions, constitutionalising social rights can be a good way to advance social justice. The book combines theoretical, doctrinal, empirical and comparative analysis, and is written to be accessible to lawyers, social scientists, political theorists and human rights advocates.

The second prize for the Peter Birks Prize was awarded jointly to James Goudkamp for Tort Law Defences (Hart Studies in Private Law, Hart Publishing), and Jure Vidmar, for Democratic Statehood in International Law: The Emergence of New States in Post-Cold War Practice (Studies in International Law, Hart Publishing).

Peter Birks Prize 2014: The Shortlist

James Goudkamp, Tort Law Defences (Hart Studies in Private Law, Hart Publishing)

Gleider I Hernández, The International Court of Justice and the Judicial Function (OUP)

Jeff King, Judging Social Rights (Cambridge Studies in Constitutional Law, CUP)

Jonathan Morgan, Contract Law Minimalism: A Formalist Restatement of Commercial Contract Law (Law in Context, CUP)

Jo Eric Khushal Murkens, From Empire to Union: Conceptions of German Constitutional Law Since 1871(OUP)

Jure Vidmar, Democratic Statehood in International Law: The Emergence of New States in Post-Cold War Practice (Studies in International Law, Hart Publishing)