Dam Awarded German Prize for Academic Achievement
Dam Awarded German Prize for Academic Achievement Citing his outstanding achievement in academic research, Law Professor Emeritus Kenneth W. Dam was awarded the first-ever Reimar Lüst Prize, the Alexander von Humboldt/Stiftung Foundation in Bonn, Germany announced this week.
Dam, one of the nation’s foremost scholars in domestic and foreign economic law, will receive a $68,000 grant and also will spend time in Germany investigating and comparing the various conditions for economic reform within the United States and Germany. Dam is the Max Pam Professor Emeritus of American and Foreign Law and a senior lecturer in the University of Chicago Law School.
The Humboldt Foundation announced that the award honors outstanding academic achievement by persons outside of Germany whose research and service builds cultural and academic relationships between their native country and Germany. Dam also is the former chairman of the German-American Academic Council.
Awarded with Dam was Japanese international law professor Koresuke Yamauchi. The foundation will award the Lüst Prize to two scholars each until 2009.
“I am quite honored to have received this award, and that my considerable research in economic law, particularly in international economic law has been recognized,” Dam said.
The foundation also lauded Dam’s leadership positions in government and academia, noting that he was one of the most influential figures in German/American academic relations. Dam is the former deputy secretary (the second-ranking official) in the Department of Treasury (2001-2003) and in the Department of State (1982-1985). Dam also was a visiting professor at the University of Freiburg in Germany.
Dam was Provost at the University of Chicago from 1980 to 1982 and is the author of five books including The GATT: Law and International Economic Organization; Economic Policy Beyond the Headlines. The Humboldt Foundation called The GATT a “standard work in economic law.” His most recent work is The Law-Growth Nexus: The Rule of Law and Economic Development.