NOTICE: The ESCLH Van Caenegem Prize

The European Society for Comparative Legal History (ESCLH) President and Executive Council are pleased to announce the first ESCLH Van Caenegem Prize competition.

The prize will be awarded to a young legal historian deemed to have written the best article in Comparative Legal History, the ESCLH journal, in the two years before ESCLH conferences.

The details of the prize are as follows:

The Van Caenegem Prize

Art. 1 The Van Caenegem prize, named in honour of Raoul Charles Van Caenegem, a pioneering author in the field of comparative legal history, is awarded to the young legal historian(s) who wrote the best article published in the Society's journal, Comparative Legal History, in the two years preceding the Society's Conference at which the prize is to be awarded.

Art. 2 The Society awards the prize on the recommendation of the Van Caenegem Prize Committee. The committee consists of a president and four members. The president of the Society's Advisory Board serves as president of the Committee. The Society's Executive Council appoints members in the year before the award ceremony to serve until the prize is awarded. Two members must belong to the Society's Advisory Board. Two members will be chosen from the organisers of the Young Legal Historians Forum which took place within two years of the appointment of the Prize Committee. All members must have a different nationality. The Society's president can, by appointment, fill a vacancy on the Prize Committee.  The Executive Council must announce the Prize Committee’s nominations in the Society's blog and journal, before the Committee recommends a winner to the Society.

Art. 3 After reviewing the articles and consulting the editor and articles editor of Comparative Legal History, a majority of votes determines the winner. If articles receive the same number of votes, the Chairman may call for a second vote; if the votes remain equal on the second vote, the prize is shared by all the authors. A member cannot vote if the vote concerns a relative within the fifth degree, a co-author of a publication or co-applicant of a project or the author is or has been an employee or grantholder at the same institution.

Art. 4 To be eligible for the prize each author must not have reached the age of 38 on 1 January of the year of the award ceremony and must not have previously received it.

Art. 5 Co-authors share the prize.

Art. 6 The prize is awarded by the Society's president at the Society's Conference where the author will be given the chance to introduce the paper.  The award of the prize will be announced in the Society's blog and in the call for papers for the Conference.

Art. 7 The prize consists of a sum to be determined by the Executive Council and a certificate. The Prize Committee will write a one page report, detailing the academic qualities and importance of the article, for publication in the Society's Journal after the Conference. The president and the members of the Committee cannot communicate with those outside the Committee in any other way about their decision.

Art. 8 The first van Caenegem prize will be awarded at the Society's conference in 2014. Exceptionally, manuscripts accepted for publication in Comparative Legal History, but not yet published in 2013 will also be considered. Any manuscript submitted for the prize to be awarded in 2014 will not be considered for the prize to be awarded in 2016.

Art. 9 Any dispute in respect of a Van Caenegem Prize must be submitted to the president of the Society whose determination is final.

Potential authors should consult the submission information on the ESCLH blog and on the Comparative Legal History site.