King's College London

Professor Webb and Professor Clooney received the 2022 Certificate of Merit for High Technical Craftsmanship and Utility to Practicing Lawyers and Scholars, awarded by the American Society of International Law (ASIL), at a ceremony in Washington DC on 7 April.

Professor Philippa Webb said: “It is a huge honour to receive this prize. It is also a pleasure to share this celebratory moment with our peers after four years of hard work on the book. We are grateful to our family and friends as well as our wonderful researchers and expert reviewers.”

It is the second time that Professor Webb has won this prestigious award – she won in 2018 for Oppenheim’s International Law: United Nations, co-authored with Rosalyn Higgins, Dapo Akande, Sandesh Sivakumaran, and James Sloan.

In their commendation, the ASIL Book Awards Committee said of The Right to a Fair Trial in International Law: “This comprehensive volume expertly illuminates the right to fair trial under international law… This volume’s greatest achievement is its remarkable mix of granularity and expansiveness: it details the contours of each fair trial right by canvassing a diverse array of international and regional legal sources—drawing not only on the Human Rights Committee and the International Criminal Court but also the African Commission’s Fair Trial Principles and ASEAN Human Rights Declaration. The result is a highly textured account of a critical right that is axiomatic in our domestic, regional, and international legal systems. The Right to a Fair Trial in International Law ably exhibits high technical craftsmanship and will undoubtedly be of considerable utility to practicing lawyers and scholars for many years to come.”

Professor Webb received her award at the ASIL’s Assembly, part of the Society’s Annual Meeting which brings together more than 1,200 scholars and practitioners of international law from around the world.

The Right to a Fair Trial in International Law is published by Oxford University Press.