ICCA Announces the Recipient of the Inaugural ICCA-Guillermo Aguilar-Alvarez Memorial Prize

ICCA is pleased to announce that Professor Julian Arato is the recipient of the inaugural ICCA-Guillermo Aguilar-Alvarez Memorial Prize.

The Prize was established in 2019 in memory of former ICCA Governing Board Member Guillermo Aguilar-Alvarez, and will be awarded every second year during an ICCA Congress to the individual under 40 who has written the best published work on international arbitration, conciliation or other forms of dispute settlement over the past two years.

Prof. Arato’s paper entitled ‘The Private Law Critique of International Investment Law’ was published in the American Journal of International Law in 2019 and was selected by an independent advisory committee as the winning essay out of some 55 entries.

In making its decision, the Advisory Board noted the following: “The Advisory Board for the ICCA-Guillermo Aguilar-Alvarez Memorial Prize recommends that it be awarded to Julian Arato for his essay ‘The Private Law Critique of International Investment Law.’  Professor Arato identifies some of the key socio-economic values which underpin specific private law arrangements in national systems; he then employs that prism to explore what he argues are disruptive effects of some international investment arbitration awards on those arrangements. He recommends that new generations of treaties confront these issues and that tribunals approach the potential conflicts with greater sensitivity.  While the committee was not persuaded of all of Professor Arato’s recommendations, it is unanimous in its assessment of the originality and scholarly depth of an essay that integrates legal theory, international arbitration, international investment law, and private international law.”

After receiving many high quality entries for the Prize, the advisory committee selected an additional 3 essays for an honourable mention. These honourable mentions were awarded to: Julio César Betancourt for ‘Damages for Breach of an International Arbitration Agreement Under English Arbitration Law’; Benjamin Hayward for ‘Paying attention to choice of law in international commercial arbitration - or - why the conflict of laws always matters’ and Jarrod Hepburn for ‘Domestic Investment Statutes in International Law’.

The announcement of the inaugural Prize winner took place at a special ceremony held during the September 2022 ICCA Congress in Edinburgh honouring Guillermo Aguilar-Alvarez and thanking Prize organizers and donors for their generous support. For more details about the Prize, click here.

The Second Edition of the ICCA-Guillermo Aguilar-Alvarez Memorial Prize will soon open for entries and will be announced at the 2024 ICCA Congress in Hong Kong. Watch this space.

View Professor Arato's acceptance speech here.

Clockwise from top left: Prize Advisory Board Member Stefano Azzali on stage with Guillermo Aguilar-Alvarez's son Patricio, Prize Advisory Board Member Aloysius Llamzon announces the winner, Julian Arato receives the inaugural ICCA-Guillermo Aguilar-Alvarez Memorial Prize.