Public Law

The professors and research assistants in the Public Law department teach and research all aspects of public law in the Federal Republic of Germany, European law and international law. The focus is on German and foreign foreign constitutional law, the constitutional law of the European Union, the law of the Council of Europe (including the European Convention on Human Rights), general international law, the law of international organisations and international economic law, antitrust and regulatory law as well as sustainability law (in particular energy and environmental law). There is also a focus on national and international tax law and foreign tax law.

The work of the professors and research assistants in public law is based on a teaching and research approach that does not understand public law as an isolated (domestic) legal system, but rather always considers it as ‘international public law’ in its vertical embedding in supranational multi-level structures. The cross-faculty ‘Centre for European and International Law’, which was founded in April 2023, is of particular importance in this context, with its directors conducting research on fundamental topics of European and international law.

Professors of Public Law regularly advise federal and state bodies of the Federal Republic of Germany (in particular the Bundestag and Bundesrat) as well as supranational bodies (in particular bodies of the European Union). In addition, professors of public law regularly appear before German and international supreme courts (in particular the Federal Constitutional Court, the Court of Justice of the European Union and the International Court of Justice) as legal representatives.