Entries are being accepted for the 2010 IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law/Roy C. Palmer Civil Liberties Prize

Entries will be accepted through July 1, 2010, for the Chicago-Kent College of Law/Roy C. Palmer Civil Liberties Prize.

Established in 2007 at Chicago-Kent College of Law by alumnus Roy C. Palmer and his wife, Susan M. Palmer, the prize honors a work of scholarship that explores the tension between civil liberties and national security in contemporary American society. The $10,000 prize is designed to encourage and reward public debate among scholars on current issues affecting the rights of individuals and the responsibilities of governments throughout the world.

Articles or books submitted to the competition must be in draft form or have been published within the year prior to the July 1 deadline. As a condition of accepting the award, the winner will present his or her work at Chicago-Kent. All reasonable expenses will be paid.

Presidential Constitutionalism in Perilous Times (Harvard University Press 2009) by University of Utah professor Scott M. Matheson, Jr., won the 2009 Chicago-Kent College of Law/Roy C. Palmer Civil Liberties Prize. The 2008 Palmer Prize was awarded to Bad Advice: Bush's Lawyers in the War on Terror (University Press of Kansas 2009) by Professor Harold H. Bruff of the University of Colorado at Boulder Law School. The inaugural prize, awarded in 2007, went to constitutional scholars David D. Cole and Jules L. Lobel for their book Less Safe, Less Free: Why America Is Losing the War on Terror (The New Press 2007).

Eligible books and articles should be submitted to Tasha Kincade, assistant to Dean Harold J. Krent, at tkincade@kentlaw.edu or Chicago-Kent College of Law, 565 West Adams Street, Chicago, IL 60661-3691.

Roy Palmer, a lawyer and real estate developer, is a 1962 honors graduate of Chicago-Kent and a member of its board of overseers. He and his wife, Susan, active in numerous civic, social and philanthropic organizations, are the recipients of the 1997 Outstanding Individual Philanthropist Award of the National Society of Fundraising Executives. In 2006, the Palmers pledged a $1 million gift to the law school.

Chicago-Kent College of Law is the law school of Illinois Institute of Technology, a private, Ph.D.-granting institution with programs in engineering, psychology, architecture, business, design and law. Chicago-Kent has a proud tradition of advancing and influencing legal thought through public programs, endowed lecture series, and faculty scholarship.