Every year, distinguished legal scholars from around the country review scholarly papers written by professors from AALS member schools. Those papers the committee deems most outstanding are selected to receive the AALS Scholarly Paper Award.

These prizes recognize and reward the authors and publishers of exceptional, innovative, and open humanities scholarship. In the initial competition, two open access monographs will receive dual awards. Authors will receive the $20,000 ACLS Open Access Book Prize. Publishers of the winning titles will receive the Arcadia Open Access Publishing Award in the amount of $30,000 to support forthcoming books that would not otherwise be published open access.

Since 1961, Scribes has presented an annual award for the best work of legal scholarship published during the previous year. The Scribes Book-Award Committee generally receives between 40 and 50 nominees each year. The Scribes Book Award is presented at Scribes' annual meeting.

he Herbert Jacob Book Prize annual competition is open to books from all fields of, and approaches to, law and society scholarship published in the previous year (excluding works of legal history, which are considered for the Hurst Prize).

The Order of the Coif presents one award each year for exceptional scholarship authored collaboratively by a student and a faculty member. Award winners’ scholarship must be of the highest quality. It shall exhibit originality, in-depth thought and analysis, and professional writing. It must make a substantial contribution to legal thought. At least one student and one faculty member must be named as primary authors of the work.

Fulltime faculty members without tenure at the time of the work’s publication, including those with fellowships, visiting assistant professorships, or similar positions, are eligible. The work may be on any topic related to administrative law, although the award selection committee may favor works with greater general applicability. Any substantial scholarly work, whether a law review article, monograph, or chapter, published in the previous year is eligible.

The ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice awards staff and fellows, scholarly authors, students and lawyers annually for best writing, outstanding governmental service, and volunteer of the year.

Judge Cudahy’s distinguished contributions to the fields of regulatory and administrative law combined a keen grasp of legal doctrine, deep insight into the institutional forces that determine how doctrine is implemented, and an appreciation of the public impact of doctrinal and institutional choices, including the consequences for fundamental values such as fairness, participation, and transparency. This competition sponsored by the American Constitution Society seeks to encourage and reward these qualities in the scholarship of others.
The competition is open to all lawyers and law students. Practicing lawyers, policymakers, academics, and law students all are encouraged to participate.

The purpose of the award is to recognize outstanding contributions of law teachers (full-time and adjunct) in teaching, scholarship, advocacy, and/or service on behalf of animals.

The goal of this competition, hosted by the Berkeley Center for Law and Business, is to highlight current legal research in ESG (environmental, social, and governance) issues and bring together leading legal scholars, practitioners, and investors. To encourage all scholars to participate, we will award one prize to a junior scholar (that have completed up to seven years since their first tenure-track appointment) and one prize to a senior scholar (that have completed 8 or more years since their first tenure-track appointment).

These awards aim at promoting antitrust scholarship. Awards include best articles, best soft laws and studies, and best student papers.

Each year The American College of Consumer Financial Services Lawyers seeks to recognize written contributions to the field of U.S. consumer financial services law. Eligible papers include publishable articles, substantial book reviews, or book chapters; books; and student case note or comment.

The Chicago-Kent College of Law / Roy C. Palmer Civil Liberties Prize is a scholarly writing competition that honors an outstanding article or book on a topic exploring the tension between civil liberties and national security in contemporary American society. The winner will receive a cash stipend of $10,000.

The American Constitution Society’s Ruth Bader Ginsburg Award recognizes an outstanding scholar in the early stages of their academic career who has demonstrated those qualities exemplified by Justice Ginsburg: scholarly excellence, the ability to imagine how society might be more just and more equal, and the determination to use the law and one’s scholarship to creatively and strategically make the imagined real.

The purpose of the award program is to recognize outstanding scholarship in the field of federal courts by untenured faculty members. To that end, eligible articles are those specifically in the field of Federal Courts that were published by a recognized journal during the twelve-month period ending on September 1 (date of actual publication determines eligibility). Eligible authors are those who, at the close of nominations are untenured, full-time faculty members at AALS member or affiliate schools, and have not previously won the award.

The Paper Competition is the Section’s way of encouraging and recognizing scholarship by junior members of the legal academy (teaching six years or fewer).

The Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences offers several awards for service, teaching, and scholarship. They include the Dorothy Bracey/Janice Joseph Minority and Women New Scholar Award, ACJS Minority Mentorship Grant Award, Ken Peak Innovations in Teaching Award, and ACJS/Sage Junior Faculty Professional Development Teaching Award.

The WSC recognizes contributions to the field through several awards including:
• The Paul Tappan Award for outstanding contributions to the field of criminology
• The June Morrison-Tom Gitchoff Founders Award for significant improvement of the quality of justice
• The W.E.B. DuBois Award for significant contributions to the field of racial and ethnic issues in criminology
• The Meda Chesney-Lind Award for significant contributions to scholarship or activism on the intersection of women and crime
• The Richard Tewksbury Award for significant contributions to scholarship or activism on the intersection of crime and sexuality

This award will recognize the best dispute resolution article published in a law review or other academic journal, in print or online, bearing a 2023 volume date.

This Award was created by the Dispute Resolution Section and approved by the American Bar Association Board of Governors to recognize outstanding scholarly work in the dispute resolution field.

The $5000 annual award recognizes scholars whose published empirical research furthers the advancement and understanding of the values and skills of dispute resolution. Research considered for the award has broad applicability to the alternate dispute resolution field, or focuses on the values and application of dispute resolution in a specific area. Interdisciplinary research is encouraged, and the findings should be published in a nationally respected journal within a specified period.

This award recognizes outstanding brief writing in an appellate court in a case concerning education law.

This award recognizes an outstanding article, book, book chapter, or other form of scholarly legal writing in the field of education law. It must be a work of scholarly excellence that has an impact on education law, published in the past two calendar years prior to the deadline, and written by an individual author.

This inaugural award honors the contributions, service, and leadership of a scholar in legal education and the legal profession with a non-tenured law school faculty member or law school faculty member with less than 10 years’ experience. The recipient is someone who has great potential to make a mark during their career as evidenced by work that brings a novel perspective or call for action in legal education or the legal profession for aging populations.

The purpose of this Section’s inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award is to honor an individual who has had a distinguished career of teaching, service, and scholarship in aging and the law for at least 20 years. The recipient should be someone who has impacted law students, the legal community, the academy, and/or the issues that affect the aging population through mentoring, writing, speaking, activism, and/or by providing opportunities to others.

The Fred C. Zacharias Memorial Prize for Scholarship in Professional Responsibility is awarded yearly to an outstanding work in legal ethics by the AALS Section on Professional Responsibility.

The American Inns of Court Warren E. Burger Prize is a writing competition designed to promote scholarship in the areas of professionalism, ethics, civility, and excellence.

The “Mark Tushnet Prize” recognizes scholarly excellence in any subject of comparative law by an untenured scholar at an AALS Member School. The Prize will be given to the author(s) of a scholarly article judged to have made an important contribution in the field of comparative law.

The Interest Groups of the American Society of International Law may choose to recognize individuals within the field of international law for contributions, scholarship, or activities.

The Peter Gonville Stein Book Award is awarded annually for the best book in non-US legal history written in English. This award is designed to recognize and encourage the further growth of fine work in legal history that focuses on all regions outside the United States, as well as global and international history.

The European Society of International Law Collaborative Book Prize is awarded each year for an outstanding collaborative work published in the field of international law. The ESIL Collaborative Book Prize was created in 2022, as a counterpart to the ESIL Monograph Prize.

The European Society of International Law Monograph Prize is awarded each year for an outstanding sole-authored work published in the field of international law.

The International Law Book Award recognizes a book that excels in originality, significance and rigor in the broadly defined field of international law. The ILAW Book Award recognizes outstanding contributions to the field of international law.

The David Yale Prize is awarded biennially. The prize is awarded for an outstanding contribution to the history of the law of England and Wales from scholars who have been engaged in research in the subject for not longer than about ten years. Since 2017, separate prizes have been given for the best book and the best article published in the preceding two years.

These prizes recognize and reward the authors and publishers of exceptional, innovative, and open humanities scholarship. In the initial competition, two open access monographs will receive dual awards. Authors will receive the $20,000 ACLS Open Access Book Prize. Publishers of the winning titles will receive the Arcadia Open Access Publishing Award in the amount of $30,000 to support forthcoming books that would not otherwise be published open access.

The Four Directions Section Awards honor individuals who have made contributions to the field of Indian Nations and Indigenous Peoples: Four awards are available: Early Career (7 years or less) Scholarship Award, Clinic Impact Award, Early Career (7 years or less) Teaching and/or Public Service Award, and Mentoring in the Legal Academy Award.

The Robert B. McKay Law Professor Award was created to honor those law professors who have shown commitment to the advancement of justice, scholarship, and the legal profession, demonstrated by outstanding contributions to the fields of tort, trial practice, or insurance law.

• The Hart-Dworkin Award in Legal Philosophy is given annually to a scholar who has made significant and lasting contributions to the philosophical understanding of law
• The Jurisprudence Section Article Award is given annually to a tenured or tenure-track scholar in recognition of an exceptional philosophical work of legal scholarship
• The Future Promise Award is given annually to a pre-tenure-track or early tenure-track scholar whose work reflects future promise in both philosophy and law

The APA Berger Memorial Prize honors a scholar for outstanding writing in the field of philosophy of law. The prize is given every other year in odd years.

The Littleton-Griswold Prize from the American Historical Association is an annual award for the best book in any subject on the history of American law and society, broadly defined.

Early-career scholars who wish to present a paper on any topic in legal, institutional and/or constitutional history, at the annual ASLH conference.

The American Society for Legal History awards scholars each year in a number of categories ranging from dissertation to books to articles and digital projects. Each prize is detailed on the page linked above.

The John Phillip Reid Book Award is awarded annually for the best monograph by a mid-career or senior scholar, published in English in any of the fields defined broadly as Anglo-American legal history.

The Peter Gonville Stein Book Award is awarded annually for the best book in non-US legal history written in English. This award is designed to recognize and encourage the further growth of fine work in legal history that focuses on all regions outside the United States, as well as global and international history.

The Bancroft Prizes are awarded annually by Columbia University in the City of New York. Two annual prizes of equal rank to be awarded to the authors of distinguished works in either or both of the following categories: American History (including biography) and Diplomacy.

Here is a list of fellowships, grants, visiting scholars’ programs, and award opportunities for scholars working on South Asian studies, legal history, and socio-legal studies. Compiled by UW Law School Professor of Law, Mitra Sharafi.

The James Willard Hurst Prize is awarded annually for the best work in sociolegal history (broadly defined) published in the previous year.

The Liberty Legacy Foundation Award is given annually by the Organization of American Historians to the author of the best book by a historian on the civil rights struggle from the beginnings of the nation to the present.

The William Nelson Cromwell Foundation offers an annual prize of $5,000 for the best article in American legal history published by an early career scholar. Articles published in the preceding calendar year in the field of American legal history, broadly conceived, will be considered. There is a preference for articles in the colonial and early national periods.

The William Nelson Cromwell Foundation awards annually to an early career scholar a $5000 book prize for excellence in scholarship in the field of American legal history. The prize is designed to recognize and promote new work in the field by graduate students, law students, post-doctoral fellows and early career faculty. The work may be in any area of American legal history, including constitutional and comparative studies, but scholarship in the colonial and early national periods will receive some preference.

The William Nelson Cromwell Foundation has established an early career scholar dissertation prize of $5,000. The winning dissertation may focus on any area of American legal history, including constitutional and comparative studies, but topics dealing with the colonial and early national periods will receive some preference. Anyone on whom a Ph.D. or S.J.D. degree has been conferred in the preceding calendar year will be eligible for this year’s prize. A dissertation may be considered for the prize only once.

The William Nelson Cromwell Foundation recently established a $10,000 prize for the best legal history article of the year. The prize is intended to recognize the growing role of legal history teaching and research in law schools. Articles on legal history published in a journal of legal scholarship, including student-edited law reviews, or written by a scholar with a degree in law, are eligible for consideration. Articles published in a journal issue that first became available to subscribers or to the public in the year 2022 are eligible for the 2022 prize.

The American Association of Law Libraries Awards Program publicly recognizes the achievements of law librarians based on service to the profession and contributions to legal literature and materials. For some awards, such as the Joseph L. Andrews Legal Literature Award and Public Access to Government Information Award, recipients need not be law librarians or members of AALL.

The ALL-SIS Book Award recognizes a significant textual contribution to legal literature. The textual work may be a book or an edited work. Nominations for the Book Award shall be measured by the creative, evaluative elements and the extent to which originality and judgment were factors in the formation of the work. The term book’ is meant to be broadly defined, and includes works that: 1) are bibliographical in nature, listing the works of a particular author, printer, or country, or a particular theme; or 2) contribute to advancing legal research or law librarianship.

The ALL-SIS Digital Publication Award recognizes a significant contribution to legal literature that is born and remains digital. A non-exhaustive list of formats which might be considered for the award include: exhibition catalog, library catalog, users guide, blog post, bibliography, webpage, or research guide.

The ALL-SIS Outstanding Article Award recognizes members contributions to the enhancement of academic law librarianship through the publication of scholarly articles.

The purpose of the award is to recognize excellence in writing by a current Research Instruction & Patron Services Special Interest Section member. The award was named in honor of Paul Gatz in 2020 who encouraged deep thinking about what it means to be a librarian, how best to teach legal research, and what roles libraries play.

The purpose of the Section Award is to honor an individual for an outstanding contribution to the field of legal writing, reasoning and research. The criteria are service, scholarship, and legal-writing program design or other activity valuable to the advancement of the field of legal writing.

Each year, ALWD honors legal writing professionals with awards recognizing significant contributions to the field. These awards, named for and given in honor of leaders in our field, recognize outstanding work with students, excellence in legal scholarship, significant and revolutionary contributions to the field of legal writing, and lifetime contributions to the field of legal writing.

The Legal Writing Institute honors members of the legal writing community with awards in a variety of fields, such as Legal Communication, curriculum design, and the well-known Golden Pen Award. Two new awards for Emerging Scholars and Influential Teaching were established in 2019.

To accelerate content development and showcase talent from various parts of the legal profession, the Scribes Board has created the Inaugural Scribes Fellows Program to attract attorneys, judges, academics, and librarians willing to produce original, engaging content related to legal writing. For the inaugural year, which will run from June 2023 through May 2024, Scribes will select up to three Fellows.

You must be a State Bar member to view the awards page. To qualify for the competition the primary author must be a State Bar member in good standing and the brief must have been submitted to an appellate court, but it doesn't need to have been the winning brief. Briefs are judged on clarity of writing, depth of analysis, and persuasiveness – not on the apparent merits of any issue.

The Thomas F. Blackwell Memorial Award is awarded by the Legal Writing Institute and the Association of Legal Writing Directors for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Legal Writing.

The Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas at Austin and Ohio Northern University’s Pettit College of Law (ONU), in consultation with the American Association of Law Schools (AALS) Section on National Security Law, have established the Mike Lewis Prize for National Security Law Scholarship. Only articles written by full-time faculty members of AALS-member schools are eligible for nomination. Diversity in nominees and perspectives is strongly encouraged, and we especially hope to see nominations of the work of new and emerging scholars.

Every other year, The American Law Institute awards the Early Career Scholars Medal to one or two outstanding early-career law professors whose work is relevant to public policy and has the potential to influence improvements in the law. The purpose of the award is to encourage practical scholarly work and to publicize the work of the honorees by sponsoring conferences on issues related to their work.

The APSA gives awards for the best dissertations, papers and articles, and books in the various subfields of the discipline, and for career achievement in research, teaching and service to the discipline. The awards are listed at the bottom of the page linked above by topic (such as book awards career awards, paper and article awards, and much more).

This national academic event is intended to foster debate, analysis, and examination of state alcohol regulation in the 21st Century. The competition is open to all persons over the age of 18. Students, academics, practicing attorneys, policymakers, regulators, public health representatives, and any person with an interest in alcohol law and policy are encouraged to submit essays.

The Political Methodology Emerging Scholar Award honors a young researcher, within ten years of their degree, who is making notable contributions to the field of political methodology.

Awarded to a scholar who is within their first ten years of teaching at an AALS member school for an article on the subject of law and religion published within twelve months of the submission deadline, which is August 15 of each year. The article must be nominated by a faculty member at an AALS member school.

Each year, scholars, lawyers, judges, and law students throughout the United States publish hundreds of law review articles concerning various aspects of sexual orientation and gender identity law. The Williams Institute and students at the UCLA School of Law initiated the Dukeminier Awards to acknowledge and distribute the best of these articles. Articles selected for a Dukeminier Award are provocative, interesting, cutting edge, and supported by careful research and elegant writing.

The purpose of the award from Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University is to encourage and recognize excellent legal scholarship related to gender and the law. The work should make a substantial contribution to legal literature and reflect original research and/or major developments in previously reported research. This paper competition is open to all full-time law professors with five (5) or fewer years of full-time law teaching experience.

The Clyde Ferguson Award honors an outstanding law teacher, who, in the course of his or her career, has achieved excellence in the areas of public service, teaching, and scholarship, particularly law teachers who have provided support, encouragement and mentoring to colleagues, students and aspiring legal educators. The Derrick Bell Award honors a junior faculty member who, through activism, mentoring, colleagueship, teaching or scholarship, has made an extraordinary contribution to legal education, the legal system, or social justice.

The Association for Political and Legal Anthropology (APLA) recognizes work that best exemplifies creativity and rigor in the ethnographic exploration of politics, law, and/or their interstices.

This award from the American Sociological Association honors the intellectual tradition of Oliver Cox, Charles S. Johnson, and E. Franklin Frazier, who placed their scholarship in service to social justice with an eye toward advancing the status of disadvantaged populations. Their scholarship was not limited to just the gathering of more data, but it was about attempting to better conditions globally.

The annual Distinguished Book Award and Distinguished Article Award honor works that make a significant contribution to the sociology of law.

Here is a list of fellowships, grants, visiting scholars’ programs, and award opportunities for scholars working on South Asian studies, legal history, and socio-legal studies. Compiled by UW Law School Professor of Law, Mitra Sharafi.

Every year, the LSA recognizes great achievements in the field of Law and Society. The prizes and awards listed on the page linked above include those for books (including the James Willard Hurst Book Prize), articles, dissertations, student writing prizes, as well as, mentorship, service, and legacy awards.

The Lillian Smith Book Awards are most interested in works that deal with race, social justice, civil and human rights, the education and socialization of young people, breaking silence among repressed groups and matters that are notably significant or of special interest affecting the changing South.

The Liberty Legacy Foundation Award is given annually by the Organization of American Historians to the author of the best book by a historian on the civil rights struggle from the beginnings of the nation to the present.

Here is a list of fellowships, grants, visiting scholars’ programs, and award opportunities for scholars working on South Asian studies, legal history, and socio-legal studies. Compiled by UW Law School Professor of Law, Mitra Sharafi.

The purpose of the award is to honor an individual who has made substantial and distinguished contributions to scholarship, teaching, and/or service in the area of the law relating to sports.

The purpose of this award is to recognize outstanding contributions of law teachers in scholarship, teaching and service in the torts and compensation systems of law.

The Robert B. McKay Law Professor Award was created to honor those law professors who have shown commitment to the advancement of justice, scholarship, and the legal profession, demonstrated by outstanding contributions to the fields of tort, trial practice, or insurance law.

The Robert B. McKay Law Professor Award was created to honor those law professors who have shown commitment to the advancement of justice, scholarship, and the legal profession, demonstrated by outstanding contributions to the fields of tort, trial practice, or insurance law.