Teaching

Public Law Seminar for Beginners with an integrated holiday assignment

Tuesday: 2.00–4.00 pm sharp, Room 18

Dates: 9 December, 16 December, 13 January, 20 January, 27 January, 3 February

GRIPS (external link, opens in a new window)

Climate Change Law

Tuesday: 14:00–16:00 (on the hour), R 007

Dates: 21 October, 28 October, 4 November, 11 November, 18 November, 25 November, 2 December

GRIPS (external link, opens in a new window)

Female Role Models in Law: Biographical Perspectives on Legal Change

This interdisciplinary course explores the lives and legacies of influential women in the field of law, including judges, legal scholars and activists. Drawing on biographical didactics, students will engage with personal narratives to understand how individual experiences have shaped legal systems in Germany, Europe and globally.

Through case studies and critical analysis, the course examines how female role models such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg have contributed to legal reform, human rights advocacy and the development of gender-sensitive jurisprudence. Students will investigate the socio-political contexts in which these women operated, the challenges they faced, and the impact of their work on contemporary legal thought and practice.

Wednesday: 10.00–12.00 (c.t.), BA.V11

Dates: 15 Oct, 22 Oct, 29 Oct, 5 Nov, 12 Nov, 19 Nov, 3 December, 10 December, 17 December, 14 January, 21 January, 26 January (2.00–6.00 pm), 4 February

GRIPS (external link, opens in a new window)

Climate Change Law and Litigation

Tuesday 4–6 pm sharp, R 007

Dates: 14 October, 21 October, 28 October, 4 November, 11 November, 18 November, 25 November, 2 December, 9 December, 16 December, 13 January, 19 January (2.00–8.00 pm), 20 January (2.00–8.00 pm)

GRIPS (external link, opens in a new window)

Climate Law Clinic

Based on the ‘clinical legal education’ method originating in the USA, this seminar aims, on the one hand, to combine the teaching of theoretical knowledge with a practical element, thereby reinforcing and deepening the students’ understanding of the subject matter. Secondly, the aim is to make a social contribution to the necessary process of transformation.

Using real-life legal issues, the students will work together to draft a response in the form of a legal opinion. The Climate Clinic (https://www.climateclinic.de/) is partnering with us to provide these real-life legal issues.

Wednesday 12–14 sharp, PT 2.0.9

Dates: 22 Oct, 29 Oct, 12 Nov, 3 Dec, 17 Dec

GRIPS (external link, opens in a new window)

Field trip to Bonn

19–21 November

A warm welcome to the homepage of Research Area 3 – Regulatory Law for Sustainability

Are you interested in climate protection, infrastructure, public commercial law and shaping our future? Then the Specialisation Area in Regulatory Law for Sustainability is just the thing for you! In this exciting degree programme, you’ll learn all about:

• Climate Change Law: Discover how legal frameworks combat climate change and promote sustainable solutions.
• Infrastructure law: Delve into the world of planning and developing sustainable infrastructure that drives our society forward.
• Public commercial law with public procurement law: Gain an understanding of the public law foundations of economic life, as well as public procurement and the promotion of sustainable economic practices.
• Planning law: Learn how legal requirements influence spatial planning and urban development and create sustainable living environments.

This specialisation offers you a unique opportunity to engage intensively with the legal aspects of sustainability and to play an active role in shaping a sustainable future. At the same time, you will revise and deepen your understanding of the compulsory subject matter in constitutional and administrative law and European law. Through excursions to law firms, public authorities or companies, or by involving practitioners in teaching, you can establish your first professional contacts. Through the Climate Law Clinic, you can apply your legal knowledge in practice yourself.

Events

Further information on the specialisation areas can be found on the website of the Faculty of Law’s Examinations Office (external link, opens in a new window).

1. Climate Protection Law (1 SWS)

The Climate Change Law course offers a comprehensive introduction to the legal framework and instruments of climate change mitigation. Participants will learn about the national and international regulations developed to combat climate change. The course begins with an introduction to climate protection law, including the terminology and the structure of the module. It then covers the development of international climate protection law from the Framework Convention to the Paris Agreement. Further topics include European climate change law, the German Climate Protection Act, the Constitution and climate change law, as well as climate adaptation law. The course covers both theoretical and practical aspects of climate change law and provides insights into current developments and challenges. Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to understand the fundamental principles and objectives of climate change law, identify and analyse the most important national and international regulations and instruments relating to climate change, and assess current legal challenges and developments in the field of climate change. Materials will be provided for the course (excerpts from court judgements and academic articles); these must be studied in advance and will then be discussed together in class.

2. Infrastructure Law (1 SWS)

The Infrastructure Law lecture enables students specialising in Area 3 – Regulatory Law of Sustainability (RRN) to familiarise themselves with an important area of reference. The lecture, which is regularly taught by Professor Hartmann and, where applicable, also by Professor Kühling, focuses primarily on energy sector law. This area of law concerns the fundamentals of energy supply in Germany. We examine the objectives, principles and key players in energy sector law. We look at energy supply companies and the networks, analyse the concept of unbundling, and consider how energy is successfully delivered to the end consumer. Naturally, climate protection plays a significant role, before we conclude by examining the regulatory authorities and the procedures governing energy supervision. In this way, using the energy sector as an example, we examine megatrends: Europeanisation, liberalisation and privatisation, as well as regulatory law as the law governing the consequences of privatisation. The lecture covers the latest developments, whilst also revising selected fundamental issues of public law, such as those covered in the compulsory examinations. Other infrastructure law regimes, such as telecommunications law, may also be covered as supplementary topics in the lecture.

3. Seminar on Regulatory Law relating to Sustainability (1 SWS)

In the seminar, we examine the practical application of this area of law and deepen our knowledge through visits to law firms, public authorities or companies, or by working on cases ourselves in the form of legal opinions. Excursions and law clinics are therefore offered (see below, under ‘Other events and additional offerings’).

4. Public Commercial Law (2 SWS)

Public Commercial Law governs the economic activities of private individuals as well as those of the public sector. The lecture examines the instruments, forms and regulations through which the state seeks to facilitate and regulate economic activity. Topics covered include trade and hospitality law, craft trades law, as well as modern regulatory law and the law on subsidies.

5. Public Procurement Law (1 SWS)

Public procurement law governs the procedures and principles according to which public contracts are awarded. It covers the procurement of services, construction works and the supply of goods. Following the major waves of privatisation in the 1990s and due to the requirements under EU law to introduce legal review mechanisms, at least in the above-threshold sector, the importance of public procurement law has continued to grow.

The course focuses primarily on the area of above-threshold procurement, as set out in Sections 97 et seq. of the German Act against Restraints of Competition (GWB). This covers everything from the conditions for the application of public procurement law, through the establishment of criteria for the selection of goods, services or construction works as well as contractors, to the award criteria and evaluation, right through to the conduct of tendering procedures and the monitoring of compliance with regulations. In addition, we will examine sustainable procurement. Together with me, you will work through this new area of law using case studies and academic articles. In this way, you will not only familiarise yourselves with a new area of law – public procurement law – but also deepen your understanding of public administration and general administrative law.

6. Planning Law (2 SWS)

The Planning Law lecture will first build on the compulsory course material on public building law. The main topics covered will be the regulation of the retail sector, in particular through the instruments of the Land Use Ordinance, and the area of law relating to urban development contracts, which is of great practical importance. Subsequently, planning levels above the municipal level are introduced, particularly regional and state planning. Here, too, a key focus is on the interconnections with building planning law, particularly in relation to site planning for renewable energy generation facilities. Another topic covered is road law, including the law on planning approval. The basic concepts of public property law are first explained using road law as an example. The planning approval procedure under road law is then presented as an example of specialised planning. In summary: The lecture builds on the compulsory course content in building law and covers topics that will later be required during legal traineeship and the second state examination in Bavaria (state planning, spatial planning, road law, planning approval).

7. Academic Decision-Making Workshop (2 SWS)

The course consists of a section on constitutional law and a section on European law. The first part is aimed at all students who have attended the two lectures on constitutional law and are interested in an in-depth discussion of current constitutional decisions and contentious issues. The second part requires that you have attended the lecture on European law.

The module forms part of the specialisation programme in specialisation areas 2, 3 (new), 4, 7, 8, 10, 12 (new) and 13.
We deviate from the traditional German method of lecture-based teaching and structure the course in line with teaching practices in the Anglo-American world, focusing on discussion with you (‘Socratic method’). This allows us, above all, to address your specific needs and the difficulties you encounter when dealing with legal issues.
We will announce the case law to be discussed in advance so that everyone can work through it (‘reading assignment’) and discuss it before the session begins. This approach is also intended to practise the methodology required for preparatory seminar papers. The marking of seminar papers and term papers shows that independently identifying recent developments in case law – for example, through current judgements – and subsequently contextualising them within existing frameworks repeatedly poses problems. Furthermore, students often lack the courage to engage in critical evaluation. This course aims to deliberately break away from the often predominant approach to legal problems via secondary literature (reading commentaries rather than judgements) and to encourage critical discourse, which is often neglected in ‘traditional’ lectures. As Kant put it: ‘Have the courage to use your own understanding!’
We will introduce the course at the outset and then take turns discussing relevant case law with you. The material will be made available prior to each lecture session.

8. Other courses and additional offerings

Exams

1. Preparatory seminar / Term paper seminar

The full range of seminars offered by the faculty (for SP 3, but also for all other specialisation areas) can always be found, fully up to date, on the Examinations Office website (external link, opens in a new window).

The seminars offered by Prof. Dr Krämer-Hoppe can also be found here (external link, opens in a new window).

2. Oral specialisation examination

Any topics covered within the specialisation area may be examined in the oral examination. Permitted reference materials are:

1. Sartorius I (without the supplementary volume)
2. Ziegler/Tremel: Administrative Laws of the Free State of Bavaria
3. Public Procurement Law (VgR) Beck-Texte in dtv No. 5595 or Habersack (without the supplementary volume)

Please bring your own legal texts to the examination; these will not be provided .

Teaching staff

The modules in Specialisation Area 3 are supervised by

• Prof. Dr Bernd J. Hartmann, LL.M. (Virginia)
• Prof. Dr Thorsten Kingreen
• Prof. Dr Rike Krämer-Hoppe (Spokesperson)
• Prof. Dr Jürgen Kühling, LL.M.
• Prof. Dr Gerrit Manssen

Climate litigation from a national, European and international perspective

in the winter term 2025/26

This seminar focuses on the recent phenomenon of climate litigation. These are legal proceedings before judicial and quasi-judicial bodies that concern key issues relating to climate science, policy or legislation. This phenomenon only gained momentum following the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015 – 70 per cent of the cases currently pending or already concluded (2,666 in total) were brought after 2015. Previously, the debate had focused on the drafting of laws and policies. In 2023, the international dimension of such proceedings came to the fore.

To gain an insight into this phenomenon, various legal actions from different countries – involving different defendants (the state or private companies) and different claims (calls for ‘more’ climate protection legislation, the enforcement of climate protection legislation, or compensation for damages) – are analysed. The focus here is on the legal proceedings themselves. The seminar will also examine the different legal systems in which these proceedings take place, as well as the role attributed to the courts in these proceedings or the role they assume, and how these relate to one another.

Further information on the topics and programme of the seminar can be found here (external link, opens in a new window).

Climate litigation from a national, European and international perspective

in the summer semester 2025

- Seminar papers (thematically independent) and student research projects (SP 3 (new version) (PO 2024), SP 8 (PO 2021), SP 8 (PO 2024)) -

The seminar focuses on the recent phenomenon of climate litigation. These are legal proceedings before judicial and quasi-judicial bodies concerning key issues in climate science, policy or legislation. This phenomenon only gained momentum following the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015 – 70 per cent of the cases currently pending or already concluded (2,666 in total) were brought after 2015. Previously, the debate had focused on the drafting of laws and policies. In 2023, the international dimension of such proceedings came to the fore.

To gain an insight into this phenomenon, various legal actions from different countries – involving different defendants (the state or private companies) and different claims (calls for ‘more’ climate protection legislation, the enforcement of climate protection legislation, or compensation for damages) – are analysed. The focus here is on the legal proceedings themselves. The seminar will also examine the different legal systems in which these proceedings take place, as well as the role attributed to the courts in these proceedings or the role they assume, and how these relate to one another.

Further information on the topics and programme of the seminar can be found here (external link, opens in a new window).

Human Dignity from a National and International Perspective

in the winter semester 2024/25

– preparatory seminar only! –

The concept of human dignity has not only established itself as a fundamental value in German law, but has also gained considerable prominence on the international stage. It is a fundamental principle enshrined in national constitutions and international human rights instruments. The seminar will examine the current state of this development, drawing on historical perspectives in the process. We will discuss both the theoretical and practical aspects of human dignity. We will examine current case studies and legal debates concerning the application and enforcement of human dignity in various contexts, including issues such as euthanasia, climate change and technological progress.

Further information on the topics and programme of the seminar can be found here (external link, opens in a new window).

Colonialism and Decolonisation in Law

in the summer term 2024

– preparatory seminar only! –

for the legal specialisation SP 8 (PO 2019), SP 8 (PO 2021).

German colonialism has long been a gap in German legal scholarship, one that has only been addressed in recent years. Issues relating to German colonialism have also been featuring more prominently in public debate of late; one need only think of the restitution of the Benin Bronzes and the compensation for the Herero. In discourses on globalisation, terms such as ‘neo-imperialism’ and the ‘colonisation of minds’ have emerged. This seminar is dedicated to these developments.

Colonialism is always met with a justified call for decolonisation. In the discussions on this topic, it has become clear that we must first reflect on and assess our own German colonial history, for example in German South-West Africa or German East Africa. Only then can we address the issues of decolonisation – namely, how the processes of the colonies’ separation from the mother country took place, where and in which areas dependencies may still exist, or where redress for past injustices is still required.

The seminar topics therefore range from legal-historical questions concerning German colonialism to current legal-policy issues relating to compensation and the restitution of cultural property, right through to legal-theoretical questions regarding the decolonisation of comparative law.

Business and Human Rights

in the winter semester 2023/24

– preparatory seminar only! –

for the legal specialisation areas SP 3 (PO 2019), SP 3 (PO 2021), SP 8 (PO 2019), SP 8 (PO 2021); thematically independent

According to the traditional (German) conception of fundamental rights, citizens and legal persons, as holders of fundamental rights, face the state as the entity bound by fundamental rights, against which they can assert their legal positions.

This strict dichotomy is being increasingly called into question in a globalised world. Multinational companies emerge as powerful actors in this context: for instance, amongst the world’s 100 largest economic actors, there are only 29 states but 71 companies. In this respect, within the scope of their business activities, these companies pose a threat not only to human rights – on a par with that of states – but also to the environment and the global climate.

Against this backdrop, various stakeholders – such as international organisations, transnational NGOs, and international and national courts – have developed different approaches to regulate multinational companies more effectively. The seminar addresses these developments in international, European and national law and offers an opportunity for in-depth discussion of this complex topic.

The following proposed topics focus on different aspects when examining the threats to fundamental rights and the environment posed by transnational corporations, their substantive legal containment and their procedural enforcement.

1. The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP)

2. Human rights in investor-state arbitration

3. Human rights and international trade law

4. Proposal for an EU Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence: Objectives and Challenges

5. The direct third-party effect of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights in the recent case law of the European Court of Justice, in particular the Cresco judgement.

6. The case law of the Federal Constitutional Court on the obligation of private actors to respect fundamental rights

– illustrated by recent decisions (beer can flash mob/stadium ban)

7. Corporate liability for breaches of customary international law?: Analysis and critique of the Canadian Supreme Court judgement in Nevsun Resources Ltd. v. Araya of 28 February 2020

8. The Supply Chain Due Diligence Act: cases of application, objectives and problematic aspects

- possibly also as a comparison with 4.

9. The RWE case

10. Liability for environmental pollution caused by international oil companies (BP in the Gulf of Mexico, Shell in the Niger Delta)

11. Court order requiring the company ‘Shell’ to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the Netherlands

12. Lawsuits brought by Deutsche Umwelthilfe against German car manufacturers

- possibly also as a comparison with 11.

13. The ILO’s fight against child labour: implementation of states’ duty to protect children in relation to companies operating internationally

14. Civil actions against TÜV Süd concerning the dam breach in Brazil on 25 January 2019

The seminar is expected to take place as a block course.

If you have any questions, please contact rike.kraemer-hoppe​(at)​ur.de (opens your email program).

Human dignity

in the summer term 2023

Law is a discipline of particular social significance. Women lawyers help shape society through the law. It is not only professions directly relevant to society – in which the state acts through its apparatus and authority – that are filled by women lawyers; examples include female judges and prosecutors, female politicians and senior civil servants. Key positions in the private sector, for example in law firms, commercial enterprises or professional associations, are also filled by female lawyers. The legal profession should therefore not only be sensitive to issues of equal opportunities, but also seek to actively promote this equality, so that the diversity and plurality of society are also reflected within the legal profession.

The Regensburg event series ‘Recht Divers’ aims to raise awareness of where diversity already exists in legal scholarship and legal practice. At the same time, it seeks to raise awareness of where inequalities still persist and to provide an incentive to work towards eliminating them within the limits of one’s own capabilities. To this end, female legal professionals from a wide variety of backgrounds and life experiences are invited to the university twice a semester to talk about their professional and personal journeys. During these events, which last around one hour, students, PhD candidates, postdoctoral researchers and trainee lawyers have the opportunity to ask the speakers questions, gather advice for their own career paths and network with one another.

A light lunch is provided during the events.

The GRIPS course for this event is available via this link (external link, opens in a new window). There you will find the presentations from previous talks as well as announcements about upcoming guests.