ND London Law Professor Philippa Webb awarded top prize in international law publishing

Philippa Webb, visiting professor and distinguished fellow with the Notre Dame London Law Program, was recently awarded the top prize in international law publishing for her 2021 book on the right to a fair trial.

The American Society of International Law awarded her book, The Right to a Fair Trial in International Law (Oxford University Press 2021, co-authored with Amal Clooney), the 2022 Certificate of Merit for High Technical Craftsmanship and Utility to Practicing Lawyers and Scholars.

Webb is professor of public international law at King’s College London. She joined The Dickson Poon School of Law in 2012 after a decade in international legal practice.

Webb is active in the field of public international law. She has recently been appointed to a legal Task Force on Accountability for Crimes Committed in Ukraine. She is on the Public International Law Advisory Panel of the British Institute of International & Comparative Law and the Board of the Clooney Foundation for Justice. She previously served on the Board of the European Society of International Law and the International Advisory Panel for the American Law Institute’s Restatement Fourth, Foreign Relations Law of the United States.

“I am thrilled to receive this recognition for the book, and by association, for the importance of a human right that is the most litigated in the world and yet still elusive in practice,” Webb said.

Webb attended the award ceremony in person in Washington, D.C., on April 7. She won the same prize in 2018 for her co-authored book, Oppenheim’s International Law: United Nations (OUP 2017).

The Book Awards Committee said her book “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 committee’s commendation said. “The result is a highly textured account of a critical right that is axiomatic in our domestic, regional, and international legal systems.”

Learn more about the Notre Dame London Law Program at law.nd.edu/London.