Jonathan Chevry wins Antonio Cassese Prize

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The EUI Law Department has named Jonathan Chevry (LAW, 2015) the winner of the Antonio Cassese Prize for the Best EUI Doctoral Thesis in International Law.

The Prize was created by the Department of Law in honour of the late Antonio Cassese, the international scholar and judge recognized as one of the most distinguished figures in international law and international criminal justice.

Jonathan Chevry, winner of the Antonio Cassese Prize for the Best Thesis in International Law

Jonathan Chevry, winner of the Antonio Cassese Prize for the Best Thesis in International Law

Jonathan defended his thesis  Convergence of international trade and investment law in practice: how should investor-state arbitral tribunals engage with trade norms? on 7 December 2015 under the supervision of Professor Petros Mavroidis.  Now an associate at White & Case LLP in Paris, Jonathan recently replied to some questions about his EUI Ph.D:

What inspired you to pursue your thesis topic? 

My thesis concerns interactions between different branches of public international law. Conflicts and coordination between two or more international legal systems is the thematic I find most stimulating in international law: you not only have to understand how one given international legal rule applies, but also how it applies in an untidy, confused legal world. Understanding ‘your’ rule isn’t enough, you have to understand the rules of the others.

How has your academic training at the EUI prepared you for the job you hold now as a ‘practitioner’.

The EUI is an intellectually stimulating environment. You get to discuss ideas, arguments, cases over a coffee or between library shelves on a daily basis. You get to research and present theories in seminars that eventually you transform into papers or developments in you thesis. This is exactly what I am asked to do in practice: come up with innovative ideas, be able to express them to my partners, make the research necessary to bolster my points and turn them into argumentation in legal briefs. I couldn’t have wished for better training.

Jonathan will receive the award in person at the EUI Conferring Ceremony on 10 June.