IACL-AIDC Concludes World Congress 2026
/The International Association of Constitutional Law (l'Association Internationale de Droit Constitutionnel) is pleased to have concluded its successful World Congress between 6 and 10 July 2026.
Many thanks go to the Universidad Externado de Colombia for hosting the Congress, which saw over 2,300 participants from across the world. Thanks also go to the workshop organisers and chairs of academic activities who convened sessions across the week.
The 2026 Congress marked the introduction of the IACL-AIDC Prizes. The IACL Publication and Prize Commission comprised of Prof Helle Krunke, Prof Tom Ginsburg, Prof Catherine O’Regan and Prof Xavier Phillippe. The prizes awarded were as follows:
The IACL Best Book Prize was awarded to Prof Melissa Crouch, Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of New South Wales, for the book The Palimpsest Constitution: The Social Life of Constitutions in Myanmar (Oxford University Press 2025)
The Prize Commission stated: A palimpsest is a manuscript or parchment from which the original text was scraped or washed off so the material could be reused. In this highly original analysis of the case of Myanmar, Professor Crouch deploys the idea that constitutions are a palimpsest of past texts, ideas, and practices, an accumulation of contested and layered legacies. Using methods from anthropology and sociology, Professor Crouch traces Myanmar’s modern constitutional history from the late colonial era through its postcolonial, socialist, and military regimes. Crouch’s method is highly original, even personal, but she manages to communicate both the moments of hope and tragedy in the bitter history of the country. Both methodologically and substantively, the volume offers insights well beyond its own closely researched case. This is not a book with a happy ending, but a very generative one. We are pleased to honor it with the inaugural IACL prize for best book of the year, for books published in 2025.”
An Honourable Mention for the Best Book of 2025 was awarded to Dr Mariana Velasco-Rivera, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Law at Maynooth University, for the book The Politics of Constitutional Rigidity: Unveiling Pathways to Change in Mexico (Oxford University Press, 2025)
The IACL Prize for Promoting Democracy, Human Rights and Peace was awarded to Manuel José Cepeda Espinosa, former IACL-AIDC President and former President of the Constitutional Court of Colombia.
The Constitutional Studies journal, supported by the IACL-AIDC and the Comparative Constitutions Project, also introduced its new Ran Hirschl Prize for the Best Article in Constitutional Studies. The prize winner was Gautam Bhatia, for the article ‘Economic Inequality and the Separation of the Economic and the Political in Modern Constitutionalism’. The article can be read in English and Spanish here.