16/12/09

By Andrew Holt

The Aristotle Onassis International Prizes in Law and in Humanities, created in 2008 by the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation and under the auspices of Institut de France have been awarded.

The Law Award was given to Lord Thomas Bingham of Cornhill, Lord High Steward of the University of Oxford, member of the British Academy and in Humanities, jointly to Mr Jean-Yves Empereur research director at CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research) and the founder of the Centre for Alexandrian studies, Alexandria, and Sir John Boardman, Honorary Professor of Art and Classical Archaeology of the Lincoln Chair, University of Oxford, member of the British Academy.

The mission of the Alexander S Onassis Foundation, established in 1975 in accordance with the last wishes of Aristotle Onassis, is to contribute to the promotion of Greek culture which is the cornerstone of western society.

Culture, education, the environment, health, and social achievement are the main priorities of the Foundation.

The Onassis International Prizes in their way symbolise the fulfilment of these commitments. They reward academics, thinkers or eminent personalities who have made a significant contribution to the enrichment of the heritage of humanity.

Antoine Papadimitriou, president of the Alexander S Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, said: "We wish to transmit to the younger generations the conviction that, beyond the lifeless frontiers that result from national interests, beyond the socio-political and religious conflicts that confine us within our own cocoon, there is a veiled hidden axis where our common culture has built its monuments be they intellectual or architectural, and which are fragile to a greater or lesser extent. This axis determines our progress in the humanistic sense of the word. Our role is to preserve and prolong that heritage."

Sharing the same values and ideals, the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation approached Institut de France to support and promote the creation of the Prizes.

"In this way we will contribute in our own way, and using an approach which is common to us both, to try to maintain the quality of dialogue and exchange between nations, to try to preserve this "justice which seems to be born out of friendship" this "philia" (friendship in Greek) which forms the common core for all humanistic political and legal thought", said Gabriel de Broglie, Chancellor of Institut de France.

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