World Peace & Liberty Award | |
---|---|
Location | United States |
Presented by | World Jurist Association |
First awarded | 1965 |
Total | 8 (to 2023) |
The World Peace & Liberty Award is a recognition granted since 1965 by the World Jurist Association, recognizing outstanding world personalities for their role in the defense of the Rule of Law in opposition to the use of force. [1]
The award is intrinsically linked to the history of the World Jurist Association. In the early 1960s, during the Cold War years, judges, lawyers, law professors and other legal professionals were demanding the organization of an open and free forum to work strengthening and disseminating the importance of the Rule of Law and its institutions around the world. In 1963, the World peace Through Law Center of the American Bar Association (today World Jurist Association), with the initial encouragement of Winston Churchill, Earl Warren and Charles Rhyne, President of the American Bar Association. Following its creation, the organization first awarded the World Peace & Liberty Award in 1965 to Sir Winston Churchill.
The next recipients of the award were René Cassin, main drafter of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in 1972; and Nelson Mandela, who received it in 1997, during the World Jurist Association conference celebrated in Cape Town, South Africa. [2]
In 2019, the prize was awarded to King Felipe VI of Spain for his role in defending the rule of law in the face of the Catalan independence challenge. [3] It was presented during the closing ceremony of the World Law Congress in Madrid. [1]
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Justice of the US Supreme Court, was awarded the prize in 2020 for her defense of gender equality and civil rights. [4] [5] The ceremony was held at the headquarters of the American Bar Association in Washington, D.C. [6]
In 2021 it was awarded to "Colombian Society" (Sociedad Colombiana) on the 30th anniversary of its democratic constitution, received by its then president Iván Duque Márquez. [7]
In 2023, the award was granted to Andrew Young, former mayor of Atlanta [8] for his role as a leader in the civil rights struggle and part of the contemporary history of the United States and the world in his fight for human rights.
Also in 2023, the award was granted to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. [9]
Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in 2020. She was nominated by President Bill Clinton to replace retiring justice Byron White, and at the time was viewed as a moderate consensus-builder. Ginsburg was the first Jewish woman and the second woman to serve on the Court, after Sandra Day O'Connor. During her tenure, Ginsburg authored the majority opinions in cases such as United States v. Virginia (1996), Olmstead v. L.C. (1999), Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services, Inc. (2000), and City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York (2005). Later in her tenure, Ginsburg received attention for passionate dissents that reflected liberal views of the law. She was popularly dubbed "the Notorious R.B.G.", a moniker she later embraced.
René Samuel Cassin was a French jurist known for co-authoring the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.
Patricia Ann McGowan Wald was an American lawyer and jurist who served as the chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1986 until 1991. She was the Court's first female chief judge and its first woman to be elevated, having been appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979. From 1999 to 2001, Wald was a Justice of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Dwight Darwin Opperman was an American businessman and lawyer. He was known as CEO of West Publishing Company, and was known for establishing WestLaw. He was a member of the board of his alma mater, Drake University, and was the university's most generous benefactor.
United States v. Virginia, 518 U.S. 515 (1996), was a landmark case in which the Supreme Court of the United States struck down the long-standing male-only admission policy of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) in a 7–1 decision. Justice Clarence Thomas, whose son was enrolled at the university at the time, recused himself.
Equality before the law, also known as equality under the law, equality in the eyes of the law, legal equality, or legal egalitarianism, is the principle that all people must be equally protected by the law. The principle requires a systematic rule of law that observes due process to provide equal justice, and requires equal protection ensuring that no individual nor group of individuals be privileged over others by the law. Also called the principle of isonomy, it arises from various philosophical questions concerning equality, fairness and justice. Equality before the law is one of the basic principles of some definitions of liberalism. It is incompatible with legal slavery.
The International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists (IJL) strives to advance human rights everywhere, including the prevention of war crimes, the punishment of war criminals, the prohibition of weapons of mass destruction, and international co-operation based on the rule of law and the fair implementation of international covenants and conventions.
Imrana Jalal, also known as Patricia Jalal, is a Fijian lawyer and activist of Indian descent.
Erwin Nathaniel Griswold was an American appellate attorney and legal scholar who argued many cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Griswold served as Solicitor General of the United States (1967–1973) under Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon. He also served as the dean of Harvard Law School for 21 years. Several times he was considered for appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court. During a career that spanned more than six decades, he served as member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and as president of the American Bar Foundation.
The Women's Rights Law Reporter is a journal of legal scholarship published by an independent student group at Rutgers School of Law—Newark. The journal was originally founded by Anne Marie Boylan out of her apartment in Newark, New Jersey. After publishing one issue, it was disbanded for lack of funding. In1970 Rutgers law student Elizabeth Langer brought fellow law students together to restart the journal at Rutgers Law School. She recruited Professor Ruth Bader Ginsburg as faculty advisor. It was the first law journal in the U.S. to focus exclusively on women's rights. Langer became chief editor with a team of law students on board. After Professor Ginsburg left Rutgers in 1972, Professor Nadine Taub became faculty advisor to the journal and remained through the 1980s and 1990s. The journal provides a forum for exploring law and public policy relating to women's rights and gender. It is published quarterly.
Martin David Ginsburg was an American lawyer who specialized in tax law and was the husband of American lawyer and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. He taught law at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., and was of counsel in the Washington, D.C., office of the American law firm Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson.
Paul Jeffrey Watford is an American lawyer who served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 2012 to 2023. In 2016, The New York Times identified Watford as a potential Supreme Court nominee to replace Justice Antonin Scalia. Watford resigned his judgeship in 2023 and became a partner at the law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
The Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA) or International Association of Lawyers is an international non-governmental organisation, created in 1927, that brings together more than two million legal professionals from all over the world.
Herma Hill Kay was the Barbara Nachtrieb Armstrong Professor of Law at UC Berkeley School of Law. She previously served as dean of Boalt from 1992 to 2000. She specialized in family law and conflict of laws.
On the Basis of Sex is a 2018 American biographical legal drama film based on the life and early cases of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was the second woman to serve as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Directed by Mimi Leder and written by Daniel Stiepleman, it stars Felicity Jones as Ginsburg. Armie Hammer, Justin Theroux, Jack Reynor, Cailee Spaeny, Sam Waterston, and Kathy Bates feature in supporting roles.
RBG is a 2018 American documentary film focusing on the life and career of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second female Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States after Sandra Day O'Connor. After premiering at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, the film was released in the United States on May 4, 2018. The film was directed and produced by Betsy West and Julie Cohen.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, died from complications of metastatic pancreatic cancer on September 18, 2020, at the age of 87. Her death received immediate and significant public attention; a vigil at the Supreme Court plaza in Washington, D.C., was held that same evening. Memorials and vigils were held in several U.S. cities, including Chicago, New York City, and San Francisco.
The World Law Foundation (WLF) is an international organization created by renowned jurists from around the world. Founded in 2019 as the executive branch of the World Jurist Association, its main purpose is the defense of the rule of law. It is based in Madrid, Spain.
The World Jurist Association (WJA), formerly known as the World Peace Through Law Center, is a non-governmental organization based in the United States that aims to strengthen and increase the rule of law around the world through cooperation. It has special consultative status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council. It organises conferences and congresses, including the World Law Congress, held in different countries each year. It also awards various medals, including the World Peace & Liberty Awards and the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Medals of Honor. As of January 2025 Spanish lawyer Javier Cremades is president of the WJA.