Professor Jay Butler Honored with Francis Lieber Prize for Outstanding Article
Recognition The American Society of International Law recognized Professor Butler for his 2017 Washington University Law Review article during the society's annual meeting on April 5. Photo by David F. Morrill
William & Mary Law School Professor Jay Butler was recognized on April 5 with the Francis Lieber Prize by the American Society of International Law for the most outstanding article published in 2017 in the field of law and armed conflict. He received the prize at the association’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
The association is honoring Butler for his article titled “Amnesty for Even the Worst Offenders,” published in Vol. 95 of the Washington University Law Review. Learn more about the article on SSRN.
“I am grateful for this award and humbled that my colleagues have recognized my work in this way,” said Butler. “I only hope that my article will contribute to more constructive policy choices in this most fraught and vexatious area of international law.”
The association’s selection committee awards the prize each year in the categories of books and articles. Last year’s prize for best article went to Professor Tom Dannenbaum of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
Butler joined the William & Mary faculty in 2016 and taught previously at Columbia Law School, where he was the Kellis E. Parker Teaching Fellow, and at Yale Law School and the George Washington University Law School. Prior to his academic career, he clerked for Judge Giorgio Gaja and Judge Hisashi Owada of the International Court of Justice and served as a legal adviser to the Government of Japan.
He is a graduate of Harvard University, where he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and graduated magna cum laude with highest honors in history. Selected as a Rhodes Scholar in his senior year, he traveled to the United Kingdom to study at Oxford University, where he earned a B.A. in Jurisprudence. He graduated with his Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School, where he was an editor of the Yale Journal of International Law.
About William & Mary Law School
Thomas Jefferson founded William & Mary Law School in 1779 to train leaders for the new nation. Now in its third century, America's oldest law school continues its historic mission of educating citizen lawyers who are prepared both to lead and to serve.