Entries are being accepted for the 2018 Chicago-Kent College of Law/Roy C. Palmer Civil Liberties Prize

Entries will be accepted through July 1, 2018, for the Chicago-Kent College of Law/Roy C. Palmer Civil Liberties Prize.

Established in 2007 at Chicago-Kent College of Law by the late Roy C. Palmer ’62 and his wife, Susan M. Palmer, the prize honors a work of scholarship that explores the tension between civil liberties and national security in contemporary American society. 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.

Articles or books submitted to the competition must be in draft form or have been published within one year prior to the July 1 deadline. As a condition of accepting the award, the winner will present his or her work at Chicago-Kent. All reasonable expenses will be paid. (Download a printable copy of the call for entries.) 

Previous recipients of the Palmer Prize include:

• 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)

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 many civic, social and philanthropic organizations. Mr. Palmer died in February 2017.

Eligible books and articles should be submitted to Ms. Tasha Kincade, assistant to Dean Harold J. Krent, at tkincade@kentlaw.iit.edu or Chicago-Kent College of Law, 565 West Adams Street, Chicago, IL 60661-3691.

Founded in 1888, Chicago-Kent College of Law is the law school of Illinois Institute of Technology, also known as Illinois Tech, a private, technology-focused, research university offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering, science, architecture, business, design, human sciences, applied technology, and law.