STANFORD, Calif., April 25, 2014 – Two Stanford Law School students have been awarded prestigious writing prizes from the Young Comparativists Committee (YCC), which hosts an annual international competition for new legal scholars that draws entries from around the globe.

Gilat Juli Bachar and Itay Ravid, both first year JSD students, were honored during the Third Annual (YCC) Global Conference in April  at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon. The conference honors younger scholars in all areas of comparative law, both public and private, at a different law school each year. These younger scholars are then invited to submit an abstract on any subject of public or private comparative law.

Gilat was the Inaugural Recipient of the Colin B. Picker Prize for the most meritorious paper written by a graduate law student for her paper, “The Occupation of the Law: Power Dynamics Between the Israeli Judiciary and Legislature Over Controlling Palestinians’ Tort Claims Against IDF.”

Itay received an honorable mention for his paper, “Watch & Learn”: Illegal Behavior and Obedience to Legal Norms Through the Eyes of Popular Culture: The Case of Popular American and Israeli TV Shows.”

“We were excited and honored to be acknowledged by the 2014 Young Comparativists Global Conference,” said Gilat and Itay. “We truly appreciated the opportunity to represent SLS and the JSD program in this distinguished forum and we thank the SLS faculty members who supported us in the process of producing these papers.”

Gilat and Itay were two of only three students honored by the YCC this year.

“The judges — who rated the papers that had been submitted for the prize without knowing the authors’ identities or schools — were apparently surprised to discover that both awardees were Stanford students. Of course, I wasn’t, because I know our students are all terrific, but it is wonderful to have external validation and very exciting for these young and most deserving scholars,” said Professor Deborah R. Hensler, Judge John W. Ford Professor of Dispute Resolution and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies.

You can read the detailed announcement here.

About Stanford Law School

Stanford Law School is one of the nation’s leading institutions for legal scholarship and education. Its alumni are among the most influential decision makers in law, politics, business, and high technology. Faculty members argue before the Supreme Court, testify before Congress, produce outstanding legal scholarship and empirical analysis, and contribute regularly to the nation’s press as legal and policy experts. Stanford Law School has established a new model for legal education that provides rigorous interdisciplinary training, hands-on experience, global perspective and focus on public service, spearheading a movement for change.