MOSCOW, May 17 (RAPSI) - The VII Saint-Petersburg International Legal Forum (LF), Russia’s Justice Ministry’s annual conference, has instituted the World Award for Highest Achievements in Civil and Private International Law, the LF press service told RAPSI on Wednesday.

The award was established “upon the Forum’s initiative supported by leading legal experts and scholar schools,” Justice Minister of Russia Alexander Konovalov said during the conference. This award will remind that law is not “a trade” but generally “a science, ideology and philosophy of life having the power to make the planet more harmonious and fair,” he added.

Authors of the best legal research papers may become candidates for the prize.

Universities from all over the globe included in influential international academic ratings would be entitled to propose candidates for the award. The universal relevance of a paper is named as one of qualification criteria, the press service’s statement reads.

Seventeen experts including representatives of University of Oxford (UK), Lomonosov Moscow State University (Russia), Montpellier University (France), University of Antwerp (Belgium), Asian Academy of International Law, University of Bristol (UK), Cambridge University (UK), University of Texas (USA) and others have already come into the review committee.

The award will be delivered for the first time during the VIII Saint-Petersburg International Legal Forum in 2018.

Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has backed the institution of the award.

The VII Saint-Petersburg International Legal Forum (LF) began on May 16 and brought together Justice Ministers from different countries, chairmen of Supreme and Constitutional Courts of European, Eastern European and Asian states, representatives of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and the Court of the Eurasian Economic Union, general secretaries of international organizations, heads of the leading legal firms, chief legal officers from major companies, judges, representatives of state regulators, legal schools and entrepreneurship from different countries. The conference will be held until May 20.