On June 25, the Cornell Law Library announced the recipients of the 2025 Cantwell Prize for Exemplary Student Research, recognizing three outstanding papers for their innovation, depth, and scholarly rigor. This year’s competition awarded two first-place prizes and one second-place prize, selected from among a strong field of submissions.

First Place (Tie)

Astoria Hall ’26: “Prophylactic Measures: Minors’ Access to Contraception”

Astoria Hall

Astoria Hall’s research investigates the accuracy of widely circulated fifty-state surveys on minors’ access to contraception. Finding significant inconsistencies in existing reports, many of which cited no supporting statutes or mischaracterized state law, Hall conducted her own comprehensive survey using Westlaw and Lexis, drawing directly from state statutes, constitutional provisions, and case law. During the process, Hall noted the diversity of approaches used and “how hard it is to identify and classify the law in each state.” In addition to this in-depth comparative legal analysis, Hall engages with Title X, constitutional doctrine, and administrative regulations promulgated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Her paper concludes that minors’ access to contraception remains inadequately protected across the United States and argues that courts may be able to intervene under states’ parens patriae doctrine in the absence of statutory mechanisms.

Sarah Carr ’26 (J.D./M.B.A.): “Health Is Wealth: Antitrust’s Limitations in Regulating Private Equity Investments in Healthcare”

Sarah Carr

Drawing on her personal, academic, and professional interests, Sarah Carr explores how private-equity investment in healthcare exacerbates structural inequality—and whether antitrust law can serve as a corrective tool. Her paper draws from a broad range of sources, including federal statutes, scholarly literature, media reporting, and financial data from industry databases such as PitchBook.

Carr reflects on the importance of grounding legal argumentation in thorough research: “Collect your facts first, then build your analysis around them. . . . Allowing your research to shape and refine your argument results in a much stronger and more grounded paper.”

Second Place

Marieya Jagroop ’26: “A Call to Eradicate the Reid Technique: An Alternative to Deceptive Interrogation”

Marieya Jagroop

Marieya Jagroop’s paper advocates for the replacement of the widely used Reid Technique with the P.E.A.C.E. model of police interrogation, currently employed in the United Kingdom and other countries. Her research spans federal and state case law, psychology, and international criminal justice practices. Jagroop credits the interdisciplinary nature of her sources for sharpening her analysis: “Through doing research for this article, I am reconnected deeply with my passion for criminal justice and its overlap with psychology. . . . I am reminded of how pressing these issues are and how easily they can become forgotten.”

About the Prize

Established through an endowment by Barbara Cantwell in memory of her husband, Robert Cantwell, Class of 1956, the Cantwell Prize recognizes student scholarship that demonstrates sophisticated use of research materials, originality, and exceptional synthesis. This year’s winners were selected by a panel of law librarians: Julia Mizutani, Julia Pluta, Anna Russell, and Nina Scholtz.