Professional Career

• At present: 

  • International Judge at the Constitutional Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina
  • Professor at Cologne University / Chair of Constitutional Law, Public International Law and Comparative Law/ Director of the Institute for Eastern European Law and Comparative Law
  • Founding Director of the Academy of European Human Rights Protection, Cologne
  • Member of the Venice Commission;
     
• 2020-2021: 
  • Chairwoman of a fact-finding Commission on extremism in the Police of Hessen (appointed by the Government of Hessen for a period of ten months)
  • Member of an Expert Commission on the reform of the French Court of Cassation;

• 2017-2019 - Vice-President of the European Court of Human Rights
• 2015-2017 - President of Section V of the ECtHR
• 2012-2015 -  Vice-President of Section V of the ECtHR
• 2011-2019 - Judge at the European Court of Human Rights (elected on behalf of Germany)
• 2010 - Vice Rector for Academic Career, Diversity and International Affairs at the University of Cologne
• 2009 - Member of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in Georgia (IIFFMCG) led by Heidi Tagliavini
• 2006-2010 - Substitute Member of the Venice Commission 
• 2003-2010 - Member of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations of the International Labour Organisation
• Starting from 2002 -
  • Full Professor of Law at the University of Cologne; Chair of Constitutional Law, Public International Law and Comparative Law; 
  • Director of the Institute for Eastern European Law and Comparative Law;
• 2001-2002 - Legal Advisor (Council of Europe), General Directorate III (Social Cohesion)
• 1993-2001 - Research Fellow at the Max-Planck-Institute for Foreign and International Social Law, Munich.

Studies

• 1982-1985 - Studies in Slavic Languages and Literature (complementary subjects: French Literature, Modern German Literature), University of Munich
• 1984-1989 - Studies in law, University of Munich; Short-term studies in Russian language and literature, Pushkin-Institute Moscow
• 1987/1988 - Courses in comparative law, Strasbourg and Coimbra
• 1994-1995 - Visiting Researcher, Harvard University

Academic Degrees

• 1987 - Magister Artium, University of Munich
• 1988 - Diplôme en droit comparé, Strasbourg University
• 1989 - First State Exam in Law, Munich
• 1993 - PhD, University of Würzburg
• 1993 - Second State Exam, Heidelberg 
• 2002 - Habilitation, University of Munich

Honours and Awards

• Honorary Bencher at Lincoln’s Inn (2020)
• Election to the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts (2019)
• Honorary Certificate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (2019)
• Officier de la Légion d’honneur, France (2019)
• Doctor honoris causa of the Lucian-Blagu University of Sibiu, Romania (2019)
• Arthur-Burkhardt Prize (2019)
• Doctor honoris causa of the Higher School of Advocacy of the Ukrainian Bar Association (2018)
• Prize of the Schader-Foundation (2015)
• Doctor honoris causa, University of Tbilissi (2010)
• Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes (1982-1987)

Memberships

• Member of the Brexit Arbitration Panel
• Member of the Consultative Council of the German Foreign Office
• Member of the Commission on the reform of the French Court of Cassation
• Chairwoman of the Advisory Board of the Stiftung Forum Recht
• Vice-Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Max-Planck-Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law
• Member of the International Academy of Comparative Law
• Member of the permanent deputation of the German Jurists‘ Conference
• Member of the Association of German Constitutional Law Professors
• Member of the Presidium of the Gesellschaft für Rechtspolitik
• Member of the Scientific Directorate of the Institute for European Politics
• Member of the Senate of the Schader Foundation
• Member of the Foundation Council of the Centre for East European and International Studies
• Member of the Academic Advisory Board of the Frankreich-Zentrum in Freiburg
• Alumna of the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes (German Academic Scholarship Foundation)

Editorships

• Jahrbuch des Öffentlichen Rechts (co-editor since 2019)
• East European Yearbook of Human Rights (Member of the International Advisory Board)
• Revue Trimestrielle des Droits de l’Homme (Member of the Comité scientifique)
• Meždunarodnoe Pravosudie (Member of the Editorial Council)
• The European Convention on Human Rights Law Review (Member of the Editorial Council)
• Ruch Prawniczy, Ekonomiczny i Socjologiczny (Member of Editorial Committee)
• Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law (Peer reviewer)

Publications

Recent books

• Menschenrechte. Geschichte, Philosophie, Konflikte, Beck-Verlag München 2021 (Human Rights. History, Philosophy, Conflicts, Munich 2021)
• The European Court of Human Rights, OUP 2020