The Royal Netherlands Society of International Law (KNVIR) was founded in 1910 as the Netherlands Society of International Law and as the Dutch Branch of the International Law Association (ILA).
It is with immense pleasure that we present to you our jury report for the 2024 François Prize, awarded by the Royal Netherlands Society of International Law (Koninklijke Nederlandse Vereniging voor Internationaal Recht, KNVIR). The François Prize, established to inspire and promote excellence in the study of public and private international law at universities across the Netherlands, is awarded every two years to recognize the best master’s thesis in these fields.
This year, we had the privilege of reviewing a noteworthy set of submissions, which were anonymized to ensure fairness. Each thesis was carefully evaluated on originality and the relevance of the topic, the systematic and logical presentation of ideas, the strength of legal analysis and conclusions, as well as style. It was truly inspiring to see the high level of scholarship represented in this edition’s entries. That being said, we did notice that the conclusions were generally on the brief side. We strongly encourage the next generation of students to dive into this final section. It is your chance to leave a lasting impression and drive your key points home, as it is often the part readers pay the most attention to. Additionally, we saw a strong focus on English-language literature across all the theses we reviewed. Expanding into more diverse sources could add depth and breadth to future research. One final critical note: we only received a single thesis on private international law. There is room to explore this fascinating field further – hopefully, we will see more work in this area submitted for the prize in the future.
Read moreAt the Annual General Meeting of 1 November 2024, held in The Hague, the J.P.A François Prize was awarded to:
Lautaro Pablo Melcón Meroi
Click here for the jury report
Click here for the prize winning paper
Mr Cor de Boer (Groningen University) received an honourable mention for his paper entitled “Perspectives on Advancing Protection for LGBTIQ+ Prisoners of War”.
Jury Report François Prize 2024
Winner – François Prize 2024