In line with the Society’s mission, the prize will be awarded to an outstanding book in the field of public law, understood as a field of knowledge that transcends dichotomies between national and international as well as between administrative and constitutional Law.
Preference will be given to scholarship, which, in dealing with the challenges of public life and governance, combines elements from all of the above with a good dose of political theory and social science.
The Book Prize will be awarded at the Society’s next global meeting to the author(s) of a book or books published in 2021 or 2022.
The winner(s) will be selected by the Society’s Book Prize Committee, which includes Giulio Napolitano (Chair), Paola Bergallo, Tom Ginsburg, Aileen Kavanagh, and Chien-Chih Lin.
Eligibility Criteria
Monographs on public law, as defined above, written in English, are eligible for nomination. Only books published in 2021 and 2022 are eligible for nomination. The relevant criterion is the official publication year, as stated in the book’s front matter. Books nominated for the 2021 and 2022 Book Prize, as well as repeated nominations in consecutive years, are not permitted. Books written by members of the Society’s Executive Committee are not eligible. Nominated books must moreover be the first original edition.
Nomination Procedures
Members of the Society’s Executive Committee and Council, groups of at least three ICON·S members, book review editors of academic journals, as well as scholarly publishers, are invited to nominate books, up to a maximum of 5 (five) each. The Book Prize Committee is authorized to consider books that have not been nominated and that it considers particularly worthy of consideration. Please note that authors are not eligible to nominate their own books. Furthermore, edited books are not eligible for consideration. The Society especially welcomes nominations of scholarly works focused on Global South public law issues and perspectives.
The deadline for the submission of nominations is February 15, 2023!
Please submit one form for every book you intend to nominate, should you plan to nominate more than one.
Please note that the nominators must send (or make arrangements with the publisher to send) one hardcopy for each member of the Book Prize Committee.
Postal addresses of the book committee members and the deadline to send the book copies will be provided in the nomination confirmation email immediately following the submission of your nomination.
For any inquiries regarding the 2023 ICON•S Annual Book Prize, including technical queries about the submission system, please contact us via email: icons@icon-society.org.