We mourn the death of Professor Dr. iur. Jörg Philipp Terhechte

It is hard to grasp – Jörg Philipp Terhechte's vibrant life ended so early. As a university professor in law, as an international bridge-builder, as a member of the Presidential Board, as a shaper of Leuphana and as a highly esteemed, humorous person and colleague, his work was cut short so suddenly.

We all experienced Professor Terhechte in numerous roles and functions, which were always based on and motivated by his commitment to the success of Leuphana. He worked tirelessly as a member of the Presidential Board during two terms of office, and he enjoyed the highest reputation as an internationally recognized and significant scientist. His great analytical skills, his ability to implement, his communication skills and his own effective pragmatism make it difficult for us to imagine moving forward without his support in the future.

The academic route. Jörg Philipp Terhechte studied law, economics and philosophy at the University of Bielefeld, where he later worked as a research assistant to his academic mentor, Professor Armin Hatje, and completed his doctorate summa cum laude. His legal training took him to various courts and to the offices of major international law firms before he passed the second state law examination at the Regional Judicial Examination Office in Düsseldorf in 2005. Even at the beginning of his legal career, he worked several times at the US Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C., and as a visiting scholar at George Washington University. Later, he worked at the China-EU School of Law (CESL) in Beijing, the University of St. Petersburg, the University of Prague, the Mongolian State University, Utrecht, Nijmegen, Lucerne, Innsbruck and Oxford as a guest professor and visiting scholar as part of various research stays.

The decision in favour of Leuphana. Jörg Philipp Terhechte received his first call to a lifetime professorship as Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law and European Law at the University of Siegen in 2011. In 2012, he decided in favour of Leuphana and accepted the W3 Professorship for Public Law, European and International Law, as well as Regulatory and Competition Law. He was managing director of the Leuphana Center for European and International Law (CEIL). With his internationally acclaimed scientific work, he has significantly contributed to the visibility and reputation of the law department at Leuphana. Since 2013, he has successfully developed and profiled the Leuphana Professional School as a leading centre for academic continuing education in Germany. For two terms of office since 2016, he has established key partnerships with, among others, the University of Glasgow, St. Andrews and The West Indies as Vice President Professional School, Internationalization and Fundraising. Further academic appointments followed as Honorary Professor at the University of Glasgow (2025), as Professor for European and International Economic Law at the University of Glasgow (2018) and finally as Visiting Professor at the University of St. Andrews (2021-2022). Likewise, as a Leuphana researcher, legal practice remained close to his heart, leading him to enter into a cooperation with the law firm Redeker Sellner Dahs in 2021.

Wide-ranging academic engagement. In addition to his status as a permanent guest scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg since 2011, Jörg Philipp Terhechte was appointed as a research fellow at the Europa-Kolleg in Hamburg from 2012-2014 and as a permanent member of the scientific advisory board of the Centre for Foreign Trade Law (ZAR) at the University of Münster. He was an internationally sought-after lecturer in his main research areas of public law, European law and public international law. He had also been co-editor of the European Yearbook of International Economic Law since 2010 and a member of the editorial board of the journal EUROPARECHT since 2006. He would have become editor of the journal EUROPARECHT from 2025. Jörg Philipp Terhechte was involved in numerous commentaries on constitutional and administrative law as well as on European Union law. He was also the general editor of the twelve-volume ‘Encyclopaedia of European Law’ and co-editor of a leading major commentary on EU law. His works have been published in several editions and are already reference works.

International bridges and the Leuphana Jura model. We got to know Professor Terhechte as a passionate and highly committed university lecturer who has always been committed to the highest quality and innovative development in the training of lawyers. The large number of doctoral students he has supervised alone underlines the high value that Jörg Philipp Terhechte, as a university professor, placed on the development of scientific careers. And so, at the Graduate School, he headed the Master's programme ‘International Economic Law’ (LL.M.), which is offered as part of a dual Master's programme with the University of Glasgow, School of Law, and at the Professional School, he headed the continuing education programme ‘Competition & Regulation’ (LL.M.). In addition, he has been involved as deputy director of studies for the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master (LL.M.) in International Law of Global Security, Peace and Development, a joint programme with IBEI Barcelona and the universities of Glasgow, Nijmegen, Tartu and the Free University of Brussels. We owe the Leuphana Law School, as the sponsor of a new path to the first state law examination, which is currently becoming established in Germany and is being replicated by many other universities, to his outstanding commitment. Here, Professor Terhechte has not only successfully overcome the technical hurdles, but also the institutional hurdles of the state judicial examination system, with his persistence and excellent communication.

Working for Lower Saxony. The cooperation between Lower Saxony and Scotland was of particular concern to Jörg Philipp Terhechte, so much so that he has institutionalized it since 2018 as Academic Director and Chairman of the Academic Board of the European Centre for Advanced Studies (ECAS), a joint research institution of the Leuphana University Lüneburg and the University of Glasgow. His commitment and dedication at the level of the universities of Lower Saxony has been recognised by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture, which has commissioned him to maintain university cooperation between Lower Saxony and Scotland since 2021. As a member of the Standing Commission on Internationalisation of the State Higher Education Conference (LHK), he has also been involved in the internationalisation of the Lower Saxony science system.

Future of the Leuphana School of Public Affairs. Finally, we can be particularly proud of the Leuphana School of Public Affairs, whose development process Jörg Philipp Terhechte has played a decisive role in shaping and representing convincingly, both internally and externally, since 2022, together with the professors of the participating disciplines of law, political science and economics. We owe the school´s radiant model programme, the Master's degree in Law, to his diplomatic and persuasive skills, with which he had an impact on the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture and the Lower Saxony Ministry of Justice.

Leuphana owes a great debt of gratitude to Professor Terhechte for his tireless work. He has significantly shaped our university and the science location Lüneburg, the Lower Saxony science dialogue and international exchange, and will continue to promote future development.

We have lost an outstanding researcher, university lecturer, strategic university designer, international networker, but above all a colleague, a person whose humour and friendly cooperation were a special gift for Leuphana. We will honour his memory.

Our sympathy as a university community goes out to his family, relatives and friends.

We plan to bid farewell to Jörg Philipp Terhechte in a memorial service in the Leuphana Auditorium. The date will be announced.