2009 LSA Prize Winners

 

2009 LSA Prize Winners

The Law and Society Association offers eight prizes and awards for scholarship in the field of law and society. They are the Harry J. Kalven, Jr. Prize for Outstanding Scholarship in Law and Society: the J. Willard Hurst Prize for the Best Work in Sociolegal Legal History; the Herbert Jacob Book Prize; the Law and Society Association Article Prize; the Law and Society Association International Prize; the Stanton Wheeler Mentorship Prize, and three student prizes -- an undergraduate paper prize, a  graduate student paper prize, and a dissertation prize. 

Calls for Nominations for 2009 prizes will be issued on this website and the LSA Newsletter this Fall, with due dates in late 2008 - early 2009. Prizes will be awarded at the annual meeting in May in Denver.

Each prize is described below:

Harry J. Kalven Jr. Prize. The Harry J. Kalven, Jr. Prize is awarded annually (biennially prior to 1999) by the Law and Society Association for "empirical scholarship that has contributed most effectively to the advancement of research in law and society." It is not a book prize, but is given in recognition of a body of scholarly work. Neither is it a career achievement award, however, at least some portion of the work for which the award is given should have been completed within the past few years. The prize is a cash award of $500 and appropriate recognition of the recipient(s) during the Association's Annual Meeting. Click here for a list of previous winners.

J. Willard Hurst Prize. The Hurst prize is given annually (biennially prior to 2002) by the Law and Society Association for the best work (in English) in sociolegal history published in the previous year. In the spirit of Willard Hurst's own work, the field of sociolegal history is broadly defined to include the history of interrelationships between law and social, economic, and political change; the history of functions and impact of legal agencies, legislative and administrative as well as judicial; the social history of the legal profession; and similar topics. The Association seeks studies in legal history that explore the relationship between law and society or illuminate the use, function, and cultural meaning of law and society. The Association discourages submission of purely doctrinal studies in the evolution of appellate case law. Textbooks, casebooks, and edited collections are not eligible for the prize, but monographs will be considered. The prize is a cash award of $500 (shared among multiple awardees) and appropriate recognition of  the recipient(s) during the Association's Annual Meeting.  Click here for a list of previous winners.

Herbert Jacob Book Prize. This is an biennial award established in 1996 as the LSA Book Prize, and in 1997 re-named in memory of Herbert Jacob. Herb was a Past President of LSA, the founder of the first internet book review in the field, Law and Politics Book Review, a creative, energetic scholar who took on a wide variety of questions and issues, and a warm human being whose own work has been a major contribution to the field of law and society. The competition is open to books from all fields of, and approaches to, law and society scholarship—excluding only works of sociolegal history, which are considered for the Hurst Prize—published in the prior year. The prize is intended to recognize new, outstanding work in law and society scholarship. Nominations are accepted from all aspects of the field and any country of origin and may include first books of young scholars to books that are capstones of long careers in law and society research and publication.  The Jacob Prize is announced during the Association's Annual Meeting. As of 2004, the prize does not include a cash component, however, contributions are solicited to permit the award to again have this aspect in the future.  Click here for a list of previous winners.

Stan Wheeler Mentorship Award.  The Stan Wheeler Mentorship award was created in 2008, to honor the memory of Stanton Wheeler (Sociology/Law, Yale University), whose mentorship was so important to so many members of the Association. It will be awarded each year to a member of the Law and Society community who is regarded by his or her peers and students as an outstanding mentor for graduate, professional or undergraduate students who are working on issues of law and society. The award will consist of a plaque or certificate honoring the recipient; and a modest cash award. The recipient of this award may use the money to cover his or her own expenses of attending the annual meeting; or, if he or she wishes, to be used for some mentorship activity related to membership in the Law & Society Association, such as, helping fund a student or students' attendance at an annual meeting, purchasing memberships for one or more students or former students, or helping fund a student's research activities. Click here for a list of previous winners.

Law and Society Association Article Prize. Awarded annually (alternate years until 1999), the Article Prize is to recognize exceptional scholarship in the field of sociolegal studies for an article published in the previous two years. The Award is announced during the Annual Meeting. The prize does not include a cash component, however, contributions are solicited to permit the award to again have this aspect in the future The competition is open to all forms of law and society scholarship, to authors at any stage of their careers, and to authors from any country of origin, although article copies submitted to the committee must be in English. Articles may be published in any scholarly journal, including socio-legal journals, journals in other disciplines, and law reviews. Click here for a list of previous winners.

Law and Society Association International Prize. The International Prize is offered biennially to a scholar, normally resident outside the United States, in recognition of scholarship that has contributed significantly to the advancement of knowledge in the field of law and society. It is not a book prize, but is given in recognition of a body of scholarly work. Neither is it a career achievement award, however, at least some portion of the work for which the award is given should have been completed within the past few years. The prize includes reimbursed of travel costs up to $400 to attend the Association's Annual Meeting where the prize is awarded. Click here for a list of previous winners.

Student Prizes.

Paper Prizes

The Law and Society Association annually offers awards to an undergraduate student and a graduate student whose nominated papers best represent outstanding law and society research. The awards are $100 cash and a travel subsidy up to $400 for expenses to attend the Annual Meeting. Nominations can be made only by a non-student member of the Law and Society Association and through the submission of the recommended paper to the Committee on Student Awards. The subject matter of nominated papers should be in the interdisciplinary tradition of law and society research, and should reflect the style of articles that appear in the Law & Society Review. Nominated papers should be work that examines law in culture and society, including interpretative, historical, social scientific, and jurisprudential scholarship. All papers entered in the competition must be written by matriculated students at any (U.S. or non-U.S.) institution of higher education in the two previous years. Submissions will be evaluated within categories of undergraduate and graduate student. Click here for a list of previous winners.

Dissertation Prize

    The paper prizes are not intended for dissertation chapters. The Association has a separate dissertation prize which is also awarded annually. The prize consists of a certificate, and up to $500 for travel to attend the LSA Annual Meeting. Submissions must be accompanied by a letter of nomination from a faculty member and must have been completed in calendar year preceding the award (i.e. in 2003 for 2004 award, in 2004 for 2005 award, etc.). The prize is awarded by a committee to the dissertation that best represents outstanding law and society scholarship. Calls for nominations for the dissertation prize are announced in the Newsletter and the prizes are awarded during the annual meeting in the following summer. The Dissertation Prize was first awarded in 1999. Click here for a list of previous winners.

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