Hemi Mistry wins Antonio Cassese Initiative Prize

Hemi Mistry, a PhD student at the School of Law has won the Antonio Cassese Initiative Prize for the best paper submitted by a young scholar.

The Antonio Cassese Initiative Prize is awarded to young scholars who offer an innovative perspective on international law.
The winning paper is titled 'The Paradox of Dissent: Judicial Dissent and the Project of International Criminal Justice’. In summary, the paper argues that dissent by international judges – namely the publication of individual opinions alongside a Court’s judgment expressing complete or partial disagreement with the judgment – has consistently played an important role in shaping the nature of the justice that international criminal courts and tribunals have delivered. The full abstract can be read on the Antonio Cassese Initiative website.

While dissent by judges can be criticised for undermining the authority of the Court and its judgment, this paper suggests how dissents from the judgments of international criminal tribunals may enrich and define a culture of international justice by widening the accessibility of, and participation in, legal discourse.

Hemi said, “Having my original abstract shortlisted for the competition itself was a quite surprise, so having actually won the competition with the final paper is a real and unexpected bonus. The process of writing the paper for the competition was a challenging and rewarding experience in itself, which will be a valuable experience that I will be able to draw upon as I continue to work on my PhD thesis.”
Hemi’s PhD research is supervised by Professor Olympia Bekou and Professor Dino Kritsiotis who were both delighted by the news and offered congratulations to Hemi.

Professor Olympia Bekou said: "As Hemi's supervisor, I am delighted to hear of her success in winning the Cassese initiative prize. Her winning paper, based on her PhD thesis, demonstrates the importance of her chosen topic. Hemi's achievement is not only reflective of her outstanding ability as doctoral student and as a promising young scholar, but also of the quality of the research programme offered by Nottingham."

Professor Kritsiotis said that the winning essay “showed a remarkable combination of legal analysis and creative thought in equal measure, powerfully drawing to the attention of its readers the under-explored function and possibilities of dissent within the system of international criminal justice. It is fully deserving of a wider audience of readership on these terms alone.”