On June 24, the Cornell Law Library announced the recipients of the 2026 Cantwell Prize for Exemplary Student Research, recognizing three exceptional papers for their innovative ideas, intellectual depth, and rigorous research. This year’s competition awarded two first-place prizes—to Yejoo Moon ’27 and Sarah Chang ’26—and one second-place prize—to Yurie Lee ’26.

First Place (Tie)

Yejoo Moon ’27: Toward a Gender-Responsive International Arbitration Ecosystem: A Multilayered Diagnostic Framework

Yejoo Moon’s paper examines questions of legitimacy, representation, and structural reform in international arbitration through the lens of gender responsiveness and institutional design. It focuses on the persistent underrepresentation of women within the international arbitral ecosystem and proposes the Gender in Arbitration Diagnostic Framework (“GADF”) as a structured tool for understanding the multilayered nature of this inequality. The paper argues that arbitral legitimacy cannot be understood solely in procedural or doctrinal terms, but must also be evaluated through the system’s inclusiveness, representativeness, and capacity to reflect the diversity of its global users. Through the GADF, the paper conceptualizes international arbitration as an interconnected ecosystem in which gender outcomes emerge from the interaction of state-level conditions, institutional appointment mechanisms, and broader arbitral community dynamics.

Sarah Chang ’26: Beyond Net Contribution: Reforming Joint Bank Account Ownership

In her paper, Sarah Chang focuses on joint bank accounts, specifically on critiquing the majority “net contribution” approach. Under the net contribution framework, ownership of funds in a joint bank account is determined based on which accountholder deposited the funds. The paper argues that this approach is harmful to low-earning partners and homemakers, which are disproportionately women. It also analyzes how the net contribution approach allows joint bank accounts to be used as a tool against victims of financial abuse. The paper proposes two alternative frameworks: an equal ownership presumption for domestic partners or a joint tenancy approach.

Second Place

Yurie Lee: ’26: HIPAA Coverage of Pre-processed Neural Telemetry from Brain-Computer Interface Implants
Yurie Lee’s paper explains that prior legal scholarship on brain-computer interface (BCI) regulation, even by prominent health-tech scholars, incorrectly applies HIPAA’s right of access provision to BCI data. Previous scholarship treated BCI data as a binary (either pure raw data or summary reports), overlooking an important third category of data: pre-processed data. HIPAA’s right of access provision is an essential patient right, granting personal access to intimate health data. Without this right, a patient with an implanted pacemaker cannot request their own heart activity data from their doctor. BCI vendors prefer patients not have this data because it increases administrative burdens, and the patient may use the data to switch providers. This paper walks through all the elements HIPAA requires for the right of access provision to apply to a dataset. It also lists possible counterarguments of BCI vendors and rebuts them.

About the Cantwell Prize:

A review panel comprised of librarians Julia Mizutani, Julia Pluta, Sara Bensley and Anna Russell selected the winners from among nineteen competitive entries.

Funding for the Prize is provided by an endowment given to the Law Library by Barbara Cantwell in honor of her late husband, Robert Cantwell, a 1956 graduate of Cornell Law School.