Hendrik Simon, Project Leader and Associated Researcher in the International Institutions Research Department, is the winner of the Jost Delbrück Prize, awarded for the third time by the Walther Schücking Institute for International Law (WSI) at Kiel University. The €1,000 prize for young researchers honors outstanding doctoral theses in the field of international law of peace and conflict. It commemorates the long-standing former director of the oldest German university institution for international law.
Simon receives the award for his book “A Century of Anarchy? War, Normativity, and the Birth of Modern International Order” (Oxford University Press, 2024), which is based on his dissertation. In the book, Simon writes a new history of the modern international order. He critically examines the widespread notion in research and the public sphere of a “free right to war” (liberum ius ad bellum). Simon argues that, contrary to the black-and-white thinking about an “old” international legal order before 1920 and a “new” order after 1920, international violence has required legitimation throughout the modern era. The theoretical roots of the modern prohibition of war under international law thus go back to the 19th century – the supposed age of anarchy.
Prof. Dr. Andreas von Arnauld, Co-Director of the Walther Schücking Institute and Deputy Chairman of the German Foundation for Peace Research (DSF), gave the laudatory speech. In it, von Arnauld explicitly praised Hendrik Simon's theoretical and interdisciplinary approach to political science, history and law. Interdisciplinarity is the essence of the book, von Arnauld argued: Hendrik Simon “doesn’t parade it, he simply does it. And it feels just right.” The book, von Arnauld continued, is an excellently written monograph, a must-read for anyone interested in the subject.
At the award ceremony in the Audimax of Kiel University, Hendrik Simon presented his book as part of this year’s Walther Schücking Lecture. The award was presented to him by Prof. Dr. Nele Matz-Lück, Co-Director of the Walther Schücking Institute. In the lecture that followed, Prof. Dr. Ernst-Ulrich Petersmann spoke on the topic “Transforming UN and WTO Legal Systems through International Legal Policy Competition and ‘Lawfare’”.
Further information on the work of the WSI and the Jost Delbrück Prize can be found on the institute's website. In the ninth episode of the PRIF talk podcast, we spoke to Hendrik Simon in August this year about his book and his analysis of war discourses and justifications of violence – available to listen to on the PRIF Blog (in German) and further platforms.