Aden Knaap, a recent graduate of Harvard University and current Yale Postdoctoral Fellow, has been awarded the Max Planck-ASLH Dissertation Prize for his dissertation entitled ,Judging the World: International Courts and the Origins of Global Governance, 1899-1971‘. The prize recognises Knaap's meticulously researched work, which traces the history and development of international courts from the first efforts in 1899 to the establishment of today's international legal institutions after the Second World War. Knaap's work offers a fresh perspective by highlighting the pivotal role of international court initiatives in the early twentieth century, a period often overlooked in narratives of global governance. He shows how early visions for institutions such as the United Nations and the World Bank initially included plans for global courts, underscoring the legal and diplomatic foundations that shaped modern international governance.