Curtis A. Bradley has been awarded the American Society of International Law’s (ASIL) inaugural Robert E. Dalton Award for Outstanding Contribution in the Field of Foreign Relations Law for his work as editor of The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Foreign Relations Law (Oxford University Press, 2019). Bradley served as Reporter on the Treaties portion of ALI’s Restatement of the Law Fourth, the Foreign Relations Law of the United States.
The below is an excerpt from the ASIL Book Awards Committee Report:
This book’s singular achievement is that it consolidates the field it sets out to study. It develops a comparative approach to the study of foreign relations law – a surprisingly underutilized and understudied methodology in this area. It does so critically and pluralistically, celebrating the potential of diverse comparative methods and approaches. The book also follows through, amply demonstrating the payoff of comparison across a series of 3 in-depth inquiries into the perennial issues in foreign relations law. Curtis A. Bradley brings together a host of outstanding contributions by first-rate authors from diverse and representative legal backgrounds. Across seven parts and nearly fifty contributions, the volume examines: (I) concepts and methodology; (II) treaty-making; (III) federalism and foreign affairs; (IV) relations with international institutions; (V) domestic application of international law; (VI) immunity and comity; and (VII) the use of force. The book’s triumph lies in how it takes a comparative methodology seriously throughout. Rather than present a series of siloed studies on practices in various jurisdictions, the editor and authors consistently prioritize interrogating the specific payoffs of comparison. The result is an enormous methodological and substantive contribution, highly accessible for experienced scholars, practitioners, and new students alike. This book will serve as a foundational text for years to come. It is difficult to imagine a better fit for the inaugural Dalton Award.
The award was presented at the ASIL's virtual annual meeting.