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LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
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Lifetime Achievement Award: Eric Stein
Awarded at the Society's 2004 Annual Meeting
Eric Stein has built
and maintained bridges between the United States and Europe for over
half a century. As a member of the emigrant generation who came to this
country in the 1930s and 1940s, he has been instrumental in opening
teaching and scholarship in American law schools to the comparative
dimension. This is particularly true with regard to our understanding
of post World War II Europe, much of which American scholars owe to his
work. He is an internationally renowned scholar not only in
comparative law but also in European Community law--a field he
virtually founded in the United States--and international law. The
comparative approach pervades virtually all of his work.
In the field of comparative law, Eric Stein's
main accomplishment has been the study of divided power systems,
especially of the comparison between American federalism and the
emerging European Community. His writings in this area, some of which
were published in the American Journal of Comparative Law, have recently been collected and published in a book appropriately entitled Thoughts from a Bridge: A Retrospective of Writings on the New Europe and American Federalism (Ann Arbor 2000). Yet, Eric Stein has looked to other divided-power systems as well, most notably in his prize-winning book Czecho/Slovakia: Ethnic Conflict, Constitutional Fissure, Negotiated Breakup
(Ann Arbor 1997) which has also been translated into Czech. In
addition, Eric Stein has published several noted articles on
comparative law more generally, at least one of which has become a
classic, "Uses, Misuses, and Nonuses of Comparative Law, 72 Northwestern Law Review 198 (1977).
Eric Stein's scholarship has consistently been
marked by great craftsmanship, care, and depth. It has been animated by
a deeply humane spirit. Thus, it has set an example for his own as well
as his successor generation. His achievements have been recognized by
two honorary doctorates (from the Université Libre Brussels,
Belgium, 1978, and from the West-Bohemian University Pilsen, Czech
Republic, 1997). He received a voluminous Festschrift in 1984,
"Festschrift in Honor of Eric Stein," 82 Michigan Law Review
1149 (1984). In 1990-1993, he was an advisor to the Czech and Slovak
governments on issues of constitution drafting. In 2001, President
Vaclav Havel awarded him the Medal of Merit First Degree for
Outstanding Scholarly Achievement of the Czech Republic.
Throughout his long career, Eric Stein has
taught and lectured at institutions in countries around the world,
including Belgium, China, England, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands,
Spain, and Sweden. Numerous active members of the American Society of
Comparative Law are proud to claim him as a mentor, advisor, and
friend.
Mathias Reimann presented this Award at the Society's annual dinner in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
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