Antonio Cassese Prize
Margherita Melillo has been awarded the Antonio Cassese Prize for the Best EUI Doctoral Thesis in International Law for her dissertation When the lawfare is about evidence: from the negotiation of the framework convention on tobacco control to the international disputes against tobacco control measures (Philip Morris v Uruguay and Australia - plain packaging).
Margherita defended her thesis on 27 November 2020, under the supervision of Professor Joanne Scott.
In their evaluation of the thesis, the prize committee wrote:
“Blending a rigorous historical and socio-legal investigation, Margherita Melillo explores the pivotal role of evidence claims in the construction and framing of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Those probing insights are, in turn, used to assess and evaluate the complex legal challenges brought by the tobacco industry against national tobacco mitigation measures before a range of international courts and tribunals.
Melillo's academic voice is pellucid and admirably self-reflective on the many strengths and occasional limitations of her chosen approach. Her work has major policy implications for global tobacco control and other "vector of disease" industries, through her forensic assessment of the strengths and limitations of "evidence-based" health interventions.”
The Mauro Cappelletti Prize
Virginia Passalacqua has been awarded the Mauro Cappelletti Prize for the Best EUI Thesis in Comparative Law for her dissertation Legal mobilization and the judicial construction of EU migration law.
Virginia defended her thesis on 17 February 2020, under the supervision of Professor Bruno de Witte.
The prize committee, in its evaluation, wrote:
"The thesis deals with who mobilizes EU migration law on behalf of migrants through an in-depth study of preliminary references reaching the Court of Justice from Italy, the UK and the Netherlands. It offers a vivid view of the law-in-action, showing how different actors belonging to civil society, to academia, or to the judiciary itself lay at the basis of the national courts’ dialogue with the CJEU. The thesis is very topical, it is written in an engaging and accessible way, and it makes an original contribution to comparative migration law, explaining legal mobilization in the three selected countries and reflecting on the conditions for successful mobilization."