Roy C. Palmer Prize on Democracy, Civil Liberties, and the Rule of Law

The Chicago-Kent College of Law/Roy C. Palmer Prize on Democracy, Civil Liberties, and the Rule of Law was established in spring 2007 by alumnus Roy C. Palmer ’62 and his wife, Susan M. Palmer, to honor a work of scholarship that explores threats to, or supports of, the liberal democratic constitutional order. The $10,000 prize is designed to encourage and reward public debate among scholars on current issues affecting the rights of individuals and the responsibilities of governments throughout the world.

The winner of the Palmer Prize will travel to Chicago-Kent to deliver the Palmer Prize Lecture, typically in the Spring.

Benefactor Roy Palmer, a lawyer and real estate developer, was a 1962 honors graduate of Chicago-Kent and a member of its board of advisors. Mr. Palmer received the Chicago-Kent Alumni Association’s 2012 Distinguished Service Award and was named by the law school in 2013 as one of “125 Alumni of Distinction.” With his wife, Susan, he was active in numerous civic, social and philanthropic organizations. Mr. Palmer died in February 2017.

Call for Entries (download flier)

Past winners:

James Davison Hunter​ for Democracy and Solidarity: On the Cultural Roots of America’s Political Crisis (Yale University Press 2024)

Michael J. Sandel for Democracy’s Discontent: A New Edition for Our Perilous Times (Harvard Press 2022)

Neil Richards for Why Privacy Matters (Oxford University Press 2022)

Jens David Ohlin for Election Interference: International Law and the Future of Democracy (Cambridge University Press 2020)

Henry Farrell and Abraham L. Newman for Of Privacy and Power—The Transatlantic Struggle over Freedom and Security (Princeton University Press 2019)

Timothy H. Edgar for Beyond Snowden: Privacy, Mass Surveillance, and the Struggle to Reform the NSA (Brookings Institution Press 2017)

Hugh Gusterson for Drone: Remote Control Warfare (MIT Press 2016, paperback 2017)

Jennifer Stisa Granick for American Spies: Modern Surveillance, Why You Should Care, and What to Do About It (Cambridge University Press 2017)

Laura K. Donohue for The Future of Foreign Intelligence: Privacy and Surveillance in the Digital Age (Oxford University Press 2016)

Benjamin Wittes and Gabriella Blum for The Future of Violence: Robots and Germs, Hackers and Drones—Confronting a New Age of Threat (Basic Books 2015)

Heidi Kitrosser for Reclaiming Accountability: Transparency, Executive Power, and the U.S. Constitution (University of Chicago Press 2015)

Ganesh Sitaraman for The Counterinsurgent’s Constitution: Law in the Age of Small Wars (Oxford University Press 2012)

Susan N. Herman for Taking Liberties: The War on Terror and the Erosion of American Democracy (Oxford University Press 2011)

Laura A. Dickinson for Outsourcing War and Peace: Preserving Public Values in a World of Privatized Foreign Affairs (Yale University Press 2011)

Gabriella Blum and Philip B. Heymann for Laws, Outlaws, and Terrorists: Lessons from the War on Terrorism (The MIT Press 2010)

Scott M. Matheson Jr. for Presidential Constitutionalism in Perilous Times (Harvard University Press 2009)

Harold H. Bruff for Bad Advice: Bush’s Lawyers in the War on Terror (University Press of Kansas 2009)

David D. Cole and Jules L. Lobel for Less Safe, Less Free: Why America Is Losing the War on Terror (The New Press 2007)