VSR Thesis Award ‘Law and Society’

Call: VSR Thesis Award “Law and Society” 2027

Have you conducted empirical research in the field of law and society and written your master’s thesis or a similar research report on this topic? Or have you supervised such research? For the biennial VSR Thesis Prize, we are looking for theses at the master’s level of a university programme. The thesis must be a social science thesis in the field of law and society, supervised by Belgian or Dutch universities.

The work must be completed after 30 September 2025 and before 30 September 2027.

The prize will be awarded during the annual VSR conference in January 2028 (the location is yet to be announced). The VSR Master’s Thesis Award consists of participation in the VSR annual conference, including the opportunity to present the thesis, and includes:

The jury is composed as follows:
Dr Jonathan Bernaerts, University of Antwerp
Dr Marc Simon Thomas, Utrecht University, Utrecht
Dr Iris Sportel, Radboud University, Nijmegen

Application
Both authors and supervisors are invited to submit a thesis and compete for the VSR Thesis Award. Entries must be submitted by 1 October 2027 via iris.sportel@ru.nl. Submitting the thesis for the prize is sufficient; other documents such as a nomination letter or transcript are not required.

Winner Thesis Award 2025
The winning thesis was written by Marloes Streppel for a joint master’s program of the universities of Ghent and Rotterdam, the International Master’s in Advanced Research in Criminology. Her thesis is entitled Bordering on Denial: A Critical Discourse Study of Frontex’s Response to Allegations of Human Rights Violations in the Aegean Sea between 2020 and 2024.

The honorable mention was for Benjamin Kessler, who wrote a thesis at Leiden University entitled Navigating the Socio-Legal Dimension of Gender Identity: An Analysis of the Self-Determination Act in Germany and its Implications for Trans People.

The jury report can be found here: Juryrapport VSR scriptieprijs 2025

Former Award Recipients
2025 – Marloes Streppel: Bordering on Denial: A Critical Discourse Study of Frontex’s Response to Allegations of Human Rights Violations on the Aegean Sea between 2020 and 2024.
2023 – Till Steinkamp: Intergenerational Justice as a Lever to Impact Climate Policies? Lessons from the Complainants Perspective on Germany’s 2021 Climate Constitutional Ruling.
2021 – Camiel Raaijmakers: The Growing Power of China: Consequences for Legal Pluralism.
2019 – niet uitgereikt.
2017 – Anneloes Hoff: Mobilising an Aspirational Constitution. The case of Colombia’s mining consultations.
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.
2012 – Not awarded
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.
2008 – Marc Simon Thomas: Brandnetels en boete, Rechtspluralisme en interlegaliteit in Ecuador.
2006 – Elke van Hellemont: Ketens van heden, determinanten van de oververtegenwoordiging van Marrons in Surinaamse gevangenissen.
2004 – Roel Gerits: Restorative Justice in South African Townships.
2002 – Jellienke Stamhuis: Zelfregulering en de bedrijfscode.
2000 – Heidy Rombouts: De rol van het juridisch beroep in de Zuid-Afrikaanse Waarheidscommissie.