In 1992 she received the Whitney North Seymour Award, the highest award given to lawyers by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights under Law and in 1993 she received the African Freedom Award from TransAfrica. Professor Goler Teal Butcher was a tenacious advocate for human rights, a tireless worker for justice, a beloved wife and mother, an admired and gifted professor, and a remarkable person. She unflinchingly did what she saw needed to be done and what she knew to be right. While she was a law professor at Howard University School of Law, Professor Butcher sought to encourage top students to enter the field of international law in general and human rights in particular. She valued combining theory, legal knowledge, and legal ability with action.
Law is both a theoretical and practical discipline.
In order to further her goals and values in these directions, Professor Butcher created the Goler Teal Butcher Award to attract strong students to international law and to encourage student scholarship grounded in both theory and practice. These aims are reflected in the criteria established for the award. The paper should not only discuss the human rights being violated, but should also propose a plan of action to correct or eliminate the violations or address the concerns. The paper must be of publishable, or near publishable quality. The ideal paper would demonstrate understanding of pertinent theory and jurisprudential underpinnings, develop a plan of action which demonstrates understanding of the relevant international legal processes, justice issues, and interdisciplinary issues so as to make the recommendations both imaginative and credible.