The Christopher Baldy Prizes for Innovation in Law and Social Policy

The Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy at the University at Buffalo Law School, The State University of New York, is pleased to announce the establishment of three new prizes for innovation in the area of law and social science: Online Communication, New Scholarship and Distinguished Contribution.

The Christopher Baldy Prizes for Innovation in Law and Social Policy have been established to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy at UB. The prizes are aimed at stimulating and rewarding innovative research, scholarship and uses of communication and information technologies that advance our knowledge and understanding of socio-legal issues. In keeping with the Baldy Center's mission to promote interdisciplinary research and scholarship in law and social policy, the prizes will be awarded to individuals who have demonstrated creative and original thinking or developed novel approaches in socio-legal research and practice. Professor Rebecca French, Director of the Baldy Center, explains: "Perhaps the most important quality needed in our society today is innovation in social policy - advances in how we think about and create the social world that we live in. Law has been a vital resource in these innovations."

The Baldy Center will grant three $7,500 prizes in the following categories:

The Christopher Baldy Prizes are open to all fields of law and social policy. Nominations can be made through the Baldy Center's website and will be accepted up to November 30 of this year. The winners will be announced in January of 2010, and each winner will be invited to come to the University at Buffalo Law School to receive their prize and give a talk on their work.

Eligibility Criteria:

1. Nominees must fulfill the criteria for their specific category for the prize.
1. The Online Communication prize will be awarded to an individual, group or organization that effectively integrates online technology in innovative ways to communicate creative ideas and best practices in law and social policy. The online work will typically combine such elements as text, audiovisual media, and social networking technologies that have a significant practical impact on law and social policy.
2. The New Scholarship prize is intended for a new scholar who demonstrates innovation and ingenuity by bringing fresh ideas to longstanding problems, exploring previously unacknowledged issues, or developing novel methods and approaches to analyses of law and social policy.
3. The Distinguished Contribution prize will be given to a distinguished scholar who has consistently demonstrated a commitment to innovative thinking in the area of law and social policy. The recipient will be someone whose groundbreaking and substantial body of work in the field has profoundly influenced the way we talk and think about law in its social contexts.
2. The written work must be in English, contain original thought, and make a substantial contribution to the field of law and social policy.
3. Awardees must agree to acknowledge the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy in the front matter of the published book or on the home page of the online site.

Nomination Process:

Candidates for the award may be nominated by any person familiar with the candidate's work; self-nominations are acceptable. A nomination letter should include the nominee's name, institutional affiliation, and contact information, with a brief summary of the nominee's accomplishments and qualifications for the prize. Nominations may be submitted electronically to: James Milles, Associate Director for Social Media, at jgmilles@buffalo.edu.

Schedule:

1. Nominations must be submitted by November 30 of each year.
2. Final decisions will be made by the committee for each of the prizes in December of each year.
3. The announcement of the awards will be made in January by the President, Dean of the Law School, and the Director of the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy at The University at Buffalo.
4. The winners will be invited to come to the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy to receive the awards and to deliver an address. The speech delivered by the awardees will be available for distribution by the Baldy Center in some form, including print publication.
5. A ceremony honoring the winners will be held at the Law & Society Association's Annual Meeting, in the spring, at an event sponsored by the Baldy Center.