The Diplomat
The Spanish lawyer Javier Cremades has received the 2023 National Jurisprudence Award from Mexico, one of the highest legal recognitions in the Spanish-speaking world.
The award is granted annually by the Mexican Bar Association to jurists who stand out for professional merits that are “indisputable, notable and eminent”, and the jury highlighted Cremades’ significant contribution to the international legal sphere as current president of the World Jurist. Association and its extensive and respected history.
This is the second time that the National Prize for Jurisprudence, established in 1987, has been awarded to a foreigner whose professional merits are “indisputable, notable and eminent.”
The distinction was presented to him last day 1 by the president of the main Mexican bar association, Víctor Oléa Peláez, who highlighted the professional merits and career of Cremades, whom he described as “one of the most relevant jurists globally” .
In his acceptance speech, Javier Cremades defended the importance of legality as the fundamental pillar against the abuse of power and emphasized that “the rule of law is only recognizable where the principle of legality governs and the decisions of judges are respected. independent.”
Cremades warned that “in the world reality there are false prophets of freedom who threaten democracies based on respect for the rule of law.” Populism, corruption and abuse of power – he said – are frequently disguised with a façade of democratic legitimacy and apparent defense of freedom, although in reality they constitute an assault against the constitutional structure that guarantees peaceful coexistence and freedom of expression. the citizens “.
During the award ceremony, a tribute video was screened in which some of the great legal personalities who have been part of the re-flowering of the WJA participated. Among others, Stephen Breyer, emeritus justice of the United States Supreme Court, intervened; Kerry Kennedy, president of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights; the former presidents of Latvia, Colombia, Mexico and Spain: Egil Levits, Iván Duque, Ernesto Zedillo and Felipe González; Eduardo Ferrer Mac-Gregor, vice president and former president of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights; Andrew Young, American Civil Rights leader, right-hand man of Martin Luther King; and Johann Kriegler, former judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, president of the Independent Electoral Commission that achieved the end of Apartheid after the triumph of Nelson Mandela.
Cremades García, with a Law degree from UNED and a Doctor in Constitutional Law from the University of Regensburg, in Germany, is president and founder of Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo Abogados, one of the most prominent firms in Spain with a presence in eight countries. He has been a visiting professor at Stanford University and professor of constitutional law at UNED.
