Legal Scholarship Awards
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CISDL-IDLO Awards of Excellence in Legal Scholarship on Sustainable Development
Each year, the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL) and the International Development Law Organisation (IDLO) jointly reward two emerging legal researchers who demonstrate an exceptional contribution to scholarship on sustainable development law and policy, by the presentation of an award for a leading research paper or brief. The CISDL-IDLO Award of Excellence in Legal Scholarship on Sustainable Development encourages innovative research on the role of law in advancing instruments for the integration of environmental protection, human rights and socio-economic development. The awards are presented to the researchers in a public symposium held at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and in an international Conference of the Parties to a major United Nations Convention.
The CISDL and IDLO are fostering a collaborative network of legal experts around the world. Recipients of the CISDL-IDLO award gain not only distinction in name, but also direct access to a well-established centre for authoritative legal scholarship. Their contributions further the objectives of collaboration and information-sharing, and selection is based on the enhancement of timely questions of international concern as well as standards of outstanding quality.
Past recipients of the award have effectively grappled with highly complex issues, including: economic instruments for climate change mitigation and adaptation; the impact of international trade and investment law on environmental integrity; and the social, economic, cultural and other human rights of persons displaced by the effects of climate change. Interested candidates can contact info@cisdl.org for details.
2010-2011 Recipients
The Centre for International Sustainable Development Law and the International Development Law Organisation wish to congratulate Ms. Sarah Mason-Case and Mr. Benoit Mayer, this year’s recipients of the CISDL-IDLO Awards of Excellence in Legal Scholarship on Sustainable Development. This year’s awards were presented by Dr. Charlotte Streck, CISDL Lead Counsel for Climate Change, during a conference hosted by the CISDL and the IDLO at the UNFCCC COP16 in Cancun, Mexico. The researchers were specifically recognized for their outstanding contributions to the CISDL-IDLO working paper series on climate change, published in the context of the COP16 and available online.
Ms. Sarah Mason-Case is an Associate Fellow with the CISDL. She is currently an LL.M. candidate in a specialized law and environment programme at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Sarah’s LL.M. thesis will assess the impacts of regulating food systems on climate change, human rights and economic development. She is particularly interested in financial incentives for sustainable agriculture. At the moment, she is concentrating her work on the assessment of international and domestic certification regimes for organic products.
Mr. Benoit Mayer studied international Human Rights law at McGill University, mixing political and legal approaches on issues such as access to medicines for HIV affected populations in developing countries, climate change law and international migrations. He graduated from McGill in 2010 after writing his supervised project on the (lack of) international legal framework on climate change induced migrations. He is now a research assistant at McGill University and intends to pursue a PhD in the Fall of 2011.