VSR Thesis Award ‘Law and Society’ 2025 (biannual)

The VSR Thesis Award is meant for a thesis or research report at the level of a master degree. It should be the result of a social scientific study or research on the subject Law and Society, conducted under the supervision of Belgium and/or Dutch universities.

The jury decides on the basis of the following criteria: originality, clear research method and apparent contribution to the knowledge and theory on law and society.

The nominated study must be finalised after 30 September 2023 and before 30 September 2025.
(Theses and research reports of 1 October 2025 and later will be eligible for the VSR Thesis Award 2027.)

The VSR is an interdisciplinary association for the social scientific study of law. Over 150 active participants from The Netherlands and Belgium (Flanders) are involved in the inquiring of the social effect of law, the attitudes of people towards law and the legal system, the social circumstances and developments that effect the law, etc. Its membership includes lawyers, sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, economists, historians, public administrators and criminologists. See www.rechtensamenleving.nl/en/

The prize will be awarded at the VSR conference January 2026, the location will be announced later. The prize consists of the sum of € 150, one year membership (including the journal Recht der Werkelijkheid (Journal of Empirical Research on Law in Action), and the expenses of participating in the VSR Annual Conference 2024 (fee, diner and hotel).

The jury is composed of:

Dr. I.D.A (Iris) Sportel, assistant professor, Radboud University, Nijmegen

Dr. M.A. (Marc) Simon Thomas, associate professor, Utrecht University, Utrecht University

[vacancy]

Application

Have you conducted an empirical study or research on a subject of law and society for your master thesis or a comparable research report? Or, were you the supervisor of such a thesis or report? Authors, as well as supervisors, are invited to nominate the thesis or research report for the VSR Award.

Applications should be submitted by 30 September 2025.
The digital version can be sent to the following email address: iris.sportel@ru.nl.
And, preferably 3 hard copies can be submitted to the following address:

Dr. I.D.A. Sportel
P.O. Box 9094
6500 KK  Nijmegen

Former Award Recipients:

• 2000, Heidy Rombouts: De rol van het juridisch beroep in de Zuid-Afrikaanse Waarheidscommissie.
• 2002, Jellienke Stamhuis: Zelfregulering en de bedrijfscode.
• 2004, Roel Gerits: Restorative Justice in South African Townships.
• 2006, Elke van Hellemont: Ketens van heden, determinanten van de oververtegenwoordiging van Marrons in Surinaamse gevangenissen.
• 2008, Marc Simon Thomas: Brandnetels en boete, Rechtspluralisme en interlegaliteit in Ecuador.
• 2010, Silke Praagman: Verschillen in de rechtszaal geoorloofd? Een onderzoek naar de verhouding tussen de gedifferentieerde werkwijze van comparitierechters en de eisen die aan het proces van rechtspreken worden gesteld.
• 2012/13, not awarded.
• 2015, Carrie van der Kroon: ‘I write with the right’, The legal consciousness of Ngäbe migrant children between Panamá and Costa Rica and the vernacularization of the UN CRC.
• 2017, Anneloes Hoff: Mobilising an Aspirational Constitution. The case of Colombia’s mining consultations.
• 2019, not awarded.
• 2021, Camiel Raaijmakers: The Growing Power of China: Consequences for Legal Pluralism.
• 2023, Till Steinkamp: Intergenerational Justice as a Lever to Impact Climate Policies? Lessons from the Complainants Perspective on Germany’s 2021 Climate Constitutional Ruling.