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2019 Winner: Nelson Guedes


Nelson Guedes is a student at the University of Victoria majoring in Philosophy. He is working on a transdisciplinary theory that provides a strong foundation for knowledge. He plans to use his theory to address a wide variety of social-economic problems. His interests include, inter alia, general systems theory, complexity science, game theory, metaphysics, philosophy of law & political philosophy, Zen Buddhism and Taoism.

Law as an Emergent Natural Phenomenon

Abstract: Increasing instability in foreign relations threatens to breakdown the decentralized international legal order. In this paper, I examine the natural decentralized emergence of law, the difficulties the international legal order is facing and the sources of instability. I will then tap into insights from decentralized indigenous legal orders and use those insights to address the difficulties the international legal order is facing. Finally, I will briefly present a solution that creates a stable decentralized international legal order.

2019 Short List

Congratulations to the the following applicants whose papers were short listed for the Keenan Prize for 2019:

  • Yasmina Aspinall from McGill University – Relational Autonomy and the Liberal View of the Person
  • Helen Han Wei Luo from Simon Fraser University – To Work as I Must, and Do as I Want: Critique of Fichte’s Right to an Occupation
  • Seshu Iyengar from University of New Brunswick – The H-Word
  • Raja Bhattacharyya from University of Toronto – The Case of Margo

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