Jaka Kukavica has been awarded this year’s Mauro Cappelletti Prize for the Best Doctoral Thesis in Comparative and European Law for his dissertation Structural values in judicial reasoning : consensus analysis in constitutional and supranational contexts. Jaka defended his thesis at the European University Institute (EUI) on 29 May 2024, under the supervision of EUI Law Professor Urška Šadl.
Kukavica’s thesis explores how the highest courts - in legal systems where power is divided vertically - use consensus as part of their legal reasoning. In particular, it looks at how the highest courts decide whether there is an agreement among the different states on a legal issue, and how they use that agreement —or the lack of it— to interpret higher-level legal rules, such as those found in a constitution or international treaty. The thesis examines how these courts operate in different legal and institutional settings, and asks whether the way they use consensus fits the specific structure of the legal system they belong to.
Logically structured and compellingly argued, the dissertation makes a mature and timely contribution to an important and topical debate in comparative constitutional law, constitutional and legal theory, human rights, and European Law.
“I am delighted to have been awarded the Mauro Cappelletti Prize for the Best Thesis in Comparative and European Law by the EUI Law Department. To say that I am honoured to be listed alongside past recipients of the prize, many of whom have already become giants in their respective fields, and for others this is only a matter of time, is an enormous understatement,” shared Kukavica upon receiving the prize. He added "I am grateful to the EUI for creating an environment conductive to producing this work, and of course to Urška, the supervisor, for pushing me beyond what I thought was possible."
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.