The University of Leeds

Faculty Member, Law

Professor of European Law, Jean Monnet Chair in Law

(Leeds is not a collegiate University)

About

In August 2007, I moved to the University of Leeds (England), where I am a professor for European Law and the Director of the Centre of European Law and Legal Studies. Prior to that, I held the Jean Monnet Chair in European Economic Law at Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg (Germany) from 2000, was the director of the "Hanse Law School" for Oldenburg from 2002, and the Pro-Dean for Teaching and Learning of the Faculty of Information Sciences, Economics and Law from April 2005 to March 2007.

My main research interests are in Europe's economic and social constitution in an ever closer integrated world, in International and EU Non-Discrimination Law and in comparative law as a critical approach to law. In September 2008, I started the Multilateral Research Group "European Economic and Social Constitutionalism after the Treaty of Lisbon", together with Professor Ulrike Liebert (Political Science, Bremen, Germany) and Professor Hildegard Schneider (Law, Maastricht, The Netherlands). Its results are published in the edited collection with the same title. Also, I initiated a series of conferences called "European Conferences on Multidimensional Equality Law". The second of these was held in March 2009 in Leeds (EU Non-Discrimination Law and Intersectionality is the resulting publication). I have also initiated a new LL.M programme in EU Law (focused on the Economic and Social law of Europe under Globalisation), which, however, does not attract more students than other EU law programmes in England.

Presently I am finishing a book on "Economic and Social Integration - the Challenge for European Constitutional Law" (Edward Elgar). For my upcoming research leave I plan to focus more on judicial ideologies (aka Social Ideals of Courts), using the European Court of Justice and its case law as an example. The goal is to establish a research cooperation aiming at combining socio-linguistic and legal analysis in order to expose determinants of judicial policy making.

I am interested in international cooperation on these themes,including the nurturing of PhD researchers. Some more information is available on my university web page (although I do not look as awful as my university likes to portray me)

Contact Information