Hannah Adzakpa has been awarded this year's Mauro Cappelletti Prize for the Best EUI Thesis in Comparative and European Law for her dissertation Realising the Human Right to a Social Minimum? A Comparative Socio-Legal Study of EU Member States. Hannah defended her thesis at the EUI on 15 June 2023, under the supervision of EUI Law Professor Claire Kilpatrick.
Hannah's thesis sheds light on the importance of realising the human right to a social minimum for marginalised and disadvantaged groups within the EU. Her study delves into the challenges faced by marginalised and disadvantaged groups in accessing basic social rights and protection within the context of the European Union, conceptualising the "minimum core doctrine" as a substantive right and making it more attainable for states to uphold their obligations under International Human Rights Law.
The members of the committee found it to be an ambitious and boldly argued thesis, addressing an important and much debated issue in the fields of human rights and poverty policy, namely whether there is a substantive right to a social minimum, and how states should seek to realise that right. Using an innovative methodology which mixes qualitative content analysis and doctrine, the author argues that EU member states should prioritise the collection of disaggregated data on vulnerable population groups.
Upon receiving the prize, Hannah commented: "I am very grateful and honoured to be awarded the Mauro Cappelletti Prize 2024. Since starting my LLB European Law School at my alma mater, Maastricht University, I was drawn to comparative approaches to law. My legal formative years had already paved the way for the comparative thesis project I embarked upon at the EUI. The fact that the name of the prize explicitly includes human rights law is an even greater joy to me. From the moment a professor in Maastricht cast doubt on the legitimacy of socio-economic rights as "real rights", I felt an innate urge to bring a human rights perspective into contexts where it is often overlooked. I extend my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Claire Kilpatrick, for her unwavering support, guidance, and nomination for this prestigious prize and for continuing to see the forest of my research project when I could only see the trees. Additionally, I want to thank the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for their generous funding, which has enabled me to pursue my PhD project".
Mauro Cappelletti, whose name is honoured by this prize, was a great scholar of Comparative Law and a Professor of Law at the EUI, at the University of Florence, and at Stanford University. In 1995, Robert Helm, an alumnus of the EUI and a former student of the late Professor Cappelletti, together with his wife Mimie Helm, generously decided to finance the annual award of a prize for the Best Doctoral Thesis at the EUI in the field of Comparative Law.
The prize is awarded annually and was conferred for the first time in 2005. The previous winners of the prize are listed here.