PROFESSOR BUTLER HONORED BY GOLD MEDAL, VASYLENKO PRIZE, AND SEVERAL FESTSCHRIFTS

William ButlerSeptember 2020 — During the past academic year, there were a number of events that recognized Professor William Butler’s significant contributions to international and comparative law. Professor William Butler was awarded the Gold Medal of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in September 2019 for exceptional contributions to international and comparative law. The Gold Medal was presented at the Koretsky Institute of State and Law in December 2019. For a cycle of works on comparative law, in February 2020 the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine awarded Butler the Vasylenko Prize. It is unusual for foreign scholars to receive either award. Butler was elected to the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in November 1992.

In 2019/2020 Butler was the recipient of four Festschrifts – two by Russian colleagues respectively at the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences and at the O. E. Kutafin Moscow Law Academy; one by Ukrainian colleagues who dedicated a special issue of the Ukrainian Journal of International Law to him, and a major volume by Ukrainian and Russian colleagues analyzing Butler’s contributions to international and comparative law. The latter two Festschrifts, in addition to appreciations from colleagues, included translations into Ukrainian of several of his articles.

In September 2019 Butler was the featured personality on the cover of Закон [Law], a major Russian law review; his interview on legal education was the lead article in parallel English and Russian texts.


Professor William Butler is the John Edward Fowler Distinguished Professor of Law at Penn State Dickinson Law; Emeritus Professor of Comparative Law, University College London; and Foreign Member, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine; National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine; and the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences; Associate Member, International Academy of Comparative Law; member, American Law Institute. He recently published International Law in the Russian Legal System (Oxford University Press, 2020) and Chapter 11 in T. E. Carbonneau, W. E. Butler, and H. A. Blair, International Litigation: Cases and Materials (3d ed.; West, 2020).