Aron Johanson was announced as the award winner during an evening reception held as part of ELI’s 2024 Annual Conference on 8 October 2024. He is a PhD student and Research Fellow at the chair of Professor Anatol Dutta at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (Germany).

In his award-winning paper, Johanson highlights the legal complexities surrounding the personal status of individuals granted subsidiary protection in the EU, unlike refugees who have clear conflict-of-laws rules under Article 12 of the Geneva Convention. In his view, the absence of a harmonised rule causes inconsistencies across EU Member States. The paper advocates revising the EU-Qualification Directive to create a unified legal framework for addressing the personal status of beneficiaries of subsidiary protection.

An extract is available here.

Walter Doralt, Chair of the ELI Young Lawyers Award Jury, and John North, member of the Jury and representative of the International Association of Independent Law Firms (Interleges), the sponsor of the Award, handed Johanson the award ceremony. ELI wishes to extend its gratitude to Interleges, which has sponsored the Award for the seventh time.

The ELI Young Lawyers Award was officially launched at the 2016 ELI Annual Conference and General Assembly. The goal of this award is to provide the young European legal community with a mechanism to propose practical suggestions for the improvement of European law. The award is supported by ELI and other participating institutions.

Interested in participating in the 2025 competition? More here.