Dr. Petar Topurov, Assistant Professor at the Civil Law department of the Institute for the State and Law of BAS, won the annual award for scientific publication in the field of legal science, named after Dr. Ilko Eskenazi. The prize has been awarded since 2005 by the International Foundation “St. St. Cyril and Methodius” and the “Dr. Ilko Eskenazi” Memorial Fund. The competition for the award aims to honour one written work in the fields of “Law” and “Economics” related to the integration of Bulgaria and its membership in the EU and is intended for young scholars up to 35 years of age. This year, the scientific jury awarded the prize to Dr. Petar Topurov for his study entitled “Domestic Violence as a Form of Human Rights Violation in the Practice of the European Court of Human Rights”. The award was presented by Prof. Ekaterina Mihaylova.
The award is named after Dr. Ilko Eskenazi – Bulgarian scientist, lawyer and politician. In 1975, Ilko Eskenazi became a full-time PhD student at the Institute for the State and Law at BAS, and in 1980 he successfully defended his PhD thesis on “The Civil Law Regime of Programs for Electronic Computing Machines”. After completing his doctoral studies, he was appointed a research fellow at the ISL of BAS, where he was habilitated in 1990. Initially, he gave lectures on intellectual property, and later he also lectured to students at the Faculty of Law of Sofia University, at the School of Patent Law of the Higher Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering – Sofia and at the University of Economics – Varna. As a specialist in intellectual property issues, for many years he was a close collaborator in various forms of YINRA.
In 1990, Dr. Eskenazi was elected to the Grand National Assembly, where he also became chairman of the Committee on Party Assets, and in 1991 he was elected to the XXXVI National Assembly. He is the initiator or main drafter of many laws related to economic development, investments, intellectual property, etc. In 1992, he became Deputy Prime Minister, heading the inter-ministerial committee on Bulgaria’s association with the European Union which held seven rounds of negotiations and numerous consultations resulting in the 1993 association. From 1990 until his death on September 28, 1994, he was Vice President of the International Foundation of “St. St. Cyril and Methodius” Foundation. The “Dr. Ilko Eskenazi” Memorial Fund was established in late 1994. It aims to support the professional and academic growth of young people in mastering the legal, economic and political sciences in Bulgaria.
