Professor Julian Arato Awarded Francis Deák Prize for Article on International Law

Professor Julian Arato, co-director of the Dennis J. Block Center for International Business Law, was awarded the prestigious Francis Deák Prize by the American Society of International Law (ASIL).

The prize has been awarded annually since 1973 for the best scholarly article written by a younger author published by the American Journal of International Law.

The award recognized Arato’s article The Private Law Critique of International Investment Law, 113 American Journal of International Law 1 (2019). In the article, Arato examines how the “one-size-fits-all” model of international investment treaties constrains how nations organize their internal systems of private law (including laws of property, contracts, corporations, and intellectual property), producing often overlooked problems of inefficiency, unfairness, and inequitable distribution.

In the award citation, the selection committee concluded that “the problems and solutions discussed by the article are timely, relevant, and poised to have an impact.”

Arato’s research and teaching interests include international economic law, public international law, international organizations, contracts, and private law theory. He has written extensively on the law of treaties and treaty interpretation, the law of international organizations, and the law of foreign direct investment. He is extremely active in the international legal community, serving on ASIL’s Executive Council, as co-chair for the ASIL International Economic Law Interest Group, and as a member of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration Academic Council. Since 2018, Arato has served as an Observer Delegate (on behalf of ASIL) to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law Working Group III (Investor-State Dispute Settlement Reform). He is currently working on a long-term project on the private law dimensions of international investment law.