Professor Thomas W. Merrill Receives 2013 Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize
Merrill, the Charles Evans Hughes Professor of Law, Is Honored for Distinguished Scholarship Linking Property Rights to Individual and Civil Rights
New York, October 18, 2013—Columbia Law School Professor Thomas W. Merrill has received the 2013 Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize for his distinguished scholarship in the field of property rights.
The prize is awarded each year to an individual whose academic work and achievements affirm that property rights are essential to preserving individual and civil rights. Merrill received his award at the William & Mary Property Rights Project’s 10th annual conference on October 17-18 in Williamsburg, Va. The prize has been awarded annually since 2004. Prior recipients include former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
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| Professor Thomas W. Merrill |
Merrill, who joined the Columbia Law School faculty in 2003 and is the Charles Evans Hughes Professor of Law, is among the nation’s most influential scholars of property, administrative, and environmental law. His books include Property: Takings (with David A. Dana) (Foundation Press, 2002), Property: Principles and Policies (2d ed., with Henry E. Smith) (Foundation Press, 2012), and The Oxford Introductions to U.S. Law (with Henry E. Smith) (Oxford University Press, 2010). A Rhodes Scholar who served as deputy solicitor general in the U.S. Department of Justice, Merrill has previously taught at Northwestern and Yale. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Merrill said he was honored to receive the award. “Property is a wonderful field to work in,” he said. “It is so rich I learn something new all the time.”
Lynda Butler, Chancellor Professor of Law at William & Mary Law School and director of the Project, praised Merrill’s scholarship for encouraging readers “to think about property’s relationship to the human condition, and its importance to our social, economic and political systems.”