Message from the IACL-AIDC President: Congratulations to Cheryl Saunders, recipient of the 2022 Tang Prize in Rule of Law

Message from IACL-AIDC President, Adrienne Stone

The IACL-AIDC congratulates our President Emeritus, Professor Cheryl Saunders, who was recently was awarded the prestigious Tang Prize in Rule of Law. 

The prize recognises Professor Saunders’ outstanding contribution to comparative public law worldwide and her work in constitution building in the Asia-Pacific region in particular. 

The Tang Prize Selection Committee paid tribute to Professor Saunders’s pioneering scholarship, noting that she “consistently broadens the boundaries of comparative constitutional law scholarship through active engagement, dialogue and collaboration with scholars and political actors at home and abroad”.

Cheryl Saunders

Cheryl Saunders has had a long association with the IACL-AIDC. She served as President from 2003-2007 and has remained a pillar of its community ever since. In addition to her work with the IACL-AIDC, Cheryl is a former President of the International Association of Centres for Federal Studies, a former President of the Administrative Review Council of Australia, and a senior technical advisor to the Constitution Building program of International IDEA. She is also convenor of the Constitution Transformation Network and founding Director of the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies, at Melbourne Law School.  She is an Officer of the Order of Australia and a chevalier in the Ordre National de la Legion d’Honneur of France.

She is held in deep admiration by legions of scholars, and generations of colleagues and students around the world. She is especially well known for a generous, inclusive, collaborative approach to the study of constitutions and for work in scholarly and practical settings that is attentive to context and truly global in outlook. 

About the Tang Prize

The Tang Prize was established in 2012 by Taiwanese entrepreneur Samuel Yin (尹衍樑), who is also chairman of the Ruentex Group, to honour individuals or organizations that have made significant contributions to human society in four categories -- sustainable development, biopharmaceutical science, Sinology, and the rule of law.

The prize is awarded biennially. Nomination and selection are conducted by an independent selection committee in cooperation with the Academia Sinica, Taiwan's top research institution.

Previous recipients of the Tang Prize in Rule of Law were South African lawyer and activist Albie Sachs in 2014, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and former justice of the Canadian Supreme Court Louise Arbour in 2016, and the late legal and political philosopher Joseph Raz in 2018.  In 2020, the prize was awarded jointly to the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association, Colombia-based Dejusticia: The Center for Law, Justice and Society, and The Legal Agenda of Lebanon.

Adrienne Stone is President of the IACL-AIDC and Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor and Director of the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies at Melbourne Law School