Contact Me | Impressum

Prof. Dr. Niels Petersen
Lehrstuhl für öffentliches Recht, Völker- und
Europarecht sowie empirische Rechtsforschung
Universitätsstr. 14-16
48143 Münster
Germany

Tel.: +49-251-83-22021

E-mail: niels.petersen [at] uni-muenster.de

Webpage of the professorship | Webseite des Lehrstuhls

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Lectures

29 July – Reflections on Equality Rights, ICON-S 2025 Annual Conference, University of Brasilia

28 July – Book Roundtable - Guardians of Equality: How Courts Conceptualize Equal Protection and Non-Discrimination Guarantees, ICON-S 2025 Annual Conference, University of Brasilia

8 July – KI und Diskriminierung, Künstliche Intelligenz in der Rohstoffgewinnung und im Recht, Online Conference, RWTH Aachen

4 July – Book Talk: Equality’s Gaurdians, 12th Annual Conference of the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality & Anti-Discrimination Law, University of Ljubljana

22 May – Correcting Inequality through Law: A Comparative Socio-Legal Analysis of Why Apex Courts Adopt Different Conceptions of Equality, Law & Society Association Annual Meeting, Chicago

2025


2024

9 December – Equality’s Guardians: How Asian Apex Courts Conceptualize Equality, Constitutional Change in Asia in the 21st Century: 10th Asian Constitutional Law Forum, Hong Kong University

29 November – Equality, Climate Change, and Future generations, Peking University School of Transnational Law, Shenzhen

26 October – Gleichheit durch Recht? Die Erfahrung der regionalen Menschenrechtsgerichte, Die Souveränität des Rechts: Symposium für Stefan Kadelbach aus Anlass seines 65. Geburtstags, Goethe University, Frankfurt/Main

11 October – Verantwortung der Staatsrechtslehre im Spannungsfeld zwischen Recht und Politik, 83. Jahrestagung der Vereinigung der Deutschen Staatsrechtslehrer: Verfassungsrecht und Politik, Lucerne

1 October – Equality, Climate Change, and Future generations in International Human Rights Law, National Chengchi University, Taipei

30 September – The relationship between international law and domestic law in Germany, National Chengchi University, Taipei

30 September – The Empirical Turn in Comparative Constitutional Law, Academia Sinica, Taipei

27 July – Equality, Climate Change, and Future generations, 11th Annual Conference of the Berkeley Centre for Comparative Equality and Antidiscrimination Law, National Law School of India University, Bangalore

8 July – Equality Rights of Future generations, The Future of Public Law: Resilience, Sustainability and Artificial Intelligence, ICON-S Conference 2024, IE Law School, Madrid

17 June – Das Verhältnis von Bundesverfassungsgericht und Europäischem Gerichtshof zwischen Konflikt und produktivem Dialog, Ringvorlesung 75 Jahre Grundgesetz: Der Verfassungsstaat in der Bewährung, University of Münster


2023

22 August – The protection of equality by international Human Rights Courts and Tribunals, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte

6 July – Four models of equality: A normative assessment on how courts correct inequality through law, Australasian Society of Legal Philosophy Annual Conference, University of Auckland

4 July – Four models of equality: A normative assessment on how courts correct inequality through law, Islands and Ocean: Public Law in a Plural Word: ICON-S Conference 2023, Victoria University Wellington

31 May – A systematic analysis of the equality case law of the Supreme Court of Singapore, Inclusivity and Diversity in the Context of Asian Law: 20th ASLI Annual Conference, National University of Singapore

14 May – The construction of judicial deference and the use of scientific evidence in constitutional jurisprudence, The role of empirical data and scientific evidence in legitimizing judicial lawmaking, Vanderbilt University, Nashville

19 April – Como hacer investigación en derecho constitucional comparado desde una perspectiva cualitativa?, Universidad Autónoma, Santiago de Chile

1 March – The Primacy of EU Law and the Polish Constitutional Law Judgment, European Parliament, LIBE Democracy, Rule of Law and Fundamemtal Rights Monitoring Group, Brussels


2022

6 December – Qualitative Methods in Comparative Constitutional Law: A Plea for Process-Tracing, World Congress of Constitutional Law, University of Johannesburg

20 October – International Law and the Present and Future of War, moderiertes Gespräch, The Outlook for Global Peace and the Future of Conflicts: CPG Annual Conference, Thammasat University, Bangkok

7 October – Como hacer investigación en derecho constitucional comparado desde una perspectiva cualitativa?, Universidad de la Sabana, Bogotá

29 September – Primacy of EU Law: challenges and future perspectives, COMECE Legal Affairs Commission, Brussels

2 September – Is Proportionality an Instrument of Judicial Activism?, International Dialogues in Constitutional Law, Universidade de Sao Paulo

30 August – The protection of equality by international Human Rights Courts and Tribunals, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte

11 August – Proporcionalidad y activismo jurídico – la experiencia alemana, Escuela de la Magistratura del Poder Judicial de Salta

10 August – Constitutional Design Based on Fear – a Case Study of Germany, Political Sentiments and Moral Emotions in Constitutional Law, IACL Roundtable, Córdoba, Argentina

5 July – Qualitative Methods in Comparative Constitutional Law: A Plea for Process-Tracing, Global Problems and Prospects in Public Law: ICON-S Conference, University of Wroclaw

4 July – Correcting Inequality through Law, Global Problems and Prospects in Public Law: ICON-S Conference, University of Wroclaw

16 June – The Construction of Judicial Deference and the Use of Scientific Evidence in Constitutional Jurisprudence, The role of empirical data and scientific evidence in legitimizing judicial lawmaking, Tilburg University

2 June – Equality and International Law, 2022 Sokol Colloquium on Comparative Human Rights Law, University of Virginia School of Law

9 May – Measuring Institutions, Panel des World Interdisciplinary Network for Institutional Research (WINIR) (online)

31 March – Not-so-Tiered Scrutiny: An Empirical Analysis of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Equal Protection Case Law, Information Society Project Ideas Lunch, Yale Law School (online)

4 March – The Primacy and Implementation of EU Law, European Parliament, LIBE Democracy, Rule of Law and Fundamemtal Rights Monitoring Group (online)


2021

15 September – Constitutional Courts as Guardians of the Rule of Law, Crisis of the Rule of Law in the Balkans and the European Union: 5th Summer University in the Balkans, University of Tirana

23 July – The Empirical Turn in Legal Scholarship, Keynote-Vortrag, 18th Annual Meeting of the German Law & Economics Association, Free University of Berlin (online)

14 July – Primacy's Twilight? On the Legal Consequences of the Ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court of 5 May 2020 for the Primacy of EU Law, European Parliament, AFCO Committee (online)

6 July – Alexy and the “German” Model of Proportionality – An empirical evaluation of the reconstructive dimension of the Theory of Constitutional Rights, ICON×S Mundo (online)

24 June – The use of scientific evidence in constitutional jurisprudence, The use of scientific evidence and empirical data in judicial lawmaking in public interest cases, University of Tilburg (online)

4 June – La función de las ciencias sociales en la adjudicación constitucional, Seminario de Teoría Constitucional & Filosofía Politica, Universidad de Cordoba (online)

3 June – The Primacy of EU Law, European Parliament, LIBE Democracy, Rule of Law and Fundamemtal Rights Monitoring Group (online)


2020

7 November – Human Rights in Times of Emergency, Interim Report, Raporteur der ILA Committee Human Rights in Times of Emergency (with Ioana Cismas), Biannual Conference of the International Law Association, Kyoto (online)

5 March – Empirical Research in Constitutional Law, New York University School of Law

27 Feb. – Correcting Inequality through Law, Global Fellows Forum, New York University School of Law


2019

28 Nov. – Le bonheur et le bien-être dans la constitution allemande et dans la jurisprudence de la Cour constitutionnelle allemande, Colloque Bonheur et bien-être dans le droit des Etats, University of Angers

18 Nov. – Introduction to Law & Economics, PhD workshop, University of Luxemburg

2 July – Empirical Research in Constitutional Law: A bird’s eye view, Public Law in Times of Change, ICON-S Conference, Santiago de Chile

19 May – Book comment: Proportionality in Action – An Empirical Study on the Judicial Practice in Six Apex Courts, Israel Democracy Institute, Jerusalem


20 Dec. – Empirical Research in Constitutional Law, Bar-Ilan University, Tel Aviv

20 Oct. – What Is the Role of Customary International Law in Protecting International Human Rights?, International Law Weekend, New York

29 Sept. – Das Verhältnismäßigkeitsprinzip im Verfassungsrecht, Chuo University, Tokyo

13 July – Legal Protection of Equality in a jurisdiction skeptical of judicial review – the case of New Zealand, Structures of Inequality in Global Comparison, Münster

26 June – What Role for Pluralism in Inter-Court Relationships? – An explanatory framework, Identity, Security, Democracy: Challenges for Public Law, ICON-S Conference, Hong Kong

21 June – Proportionality and Its Discontents: Why Robert Alexy's Theory of constitutional rights fails to describe and to defend the judicial practice regarding proportionality, 10th World Congress of the International Association of Constitutional Law, Seoul

10 May – Proportionality and Judicial Activism, Union University, Belgrade

8 May – Empirische Verfassungsrechtswissenschaft, Recht im Kontext, Humboldt University, Berlin

10 Apr. – Empirical Research in Public Law: A bird's-eye view, Tim Koopmans Lecture, Leiden University

2018


6 Dec. – Equal Protection Guarantees and Judicial Self-Restraint, Tri-Nations Public Law Symposium, University of Auckland

23 Nov. – Equal Protection vs. Non-Discrimination Guarantees: Does It Make a Difference? – A Comparison of the experiences in the United States, New Zealand, and Germany, Victoria University Faculty of Law, Wellington

23 Oct. – Book talk: Does proportionality analysis promote judicial activism?, Centre for Comparative and Public Law, University of Hong Kong

21 Oct. – Can Customary International Law Contribute to Protecting the Global Commons?, CPG 8th International Conference: The Global Commons and the Governance of Unappropriated Spaces, Thammasat University, Bangkok

13 Oct. – Same-sex marriage: reflections on the German experience and how it compares to the Australian, University of New South Wales, Sydney

12 Oct. – The German Approach to Proportionality: A Model for Australia?, Sydney Law School

3 Oct. – The Globalization of Proportionality: Doctrinal convergence or divergence?, Melbourne Law School

7 July – Equal Protection Guarantees and Judicial Self-Restraint, ICON-S Conference: Courts, Power, Public Law, University of Copenhagen

6 July – Building the Constitution - The Practice of Constitutional Interpretation in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Remarks from a German Comparative Lawyer, ICON-S Conference: Courts, Power, Public Law, University of Copenhagen

25 May – Concepts, intérêts et valeurs dans l'interprétation du droit constitutionnel: rapport général, Journées internationales de l’Association Henri Capitant, University of Como

7 Apr. – Die Rückkehr des "Bürgers" in der republikanischen Demokratietheorie, Menschenbilder im Recht, University of Erlangen

24 Feb. – How External Constraints Shape Judicial Decision-Making, The Deliberative Performance of Constitutional Courts: An Empirical Perspetive, University of Antwerp

30 Jan. – The Principle of non-discrimination under the European Convention on Human Rights and the EU Charter on Fundamental Freedoms, Human Rights Issues in Europe and Asia, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo

2017


2016

30 Nov. – Verschiedene Gleichheit, Inaugural Lecture, University of Münster

14 Oct. – The Political Backlash against Free Trade: Towards a New Era of Economic Isolationism?, CPG 7th Annual Conference: The Great Game Reloaded: Order and Disorder in Geopolitics and Global Governance, Thammasat University, Bangkok

3 June – Germany’s Judicial and Political Commitment to the Rule of EU Law, The Rule of Law in the EU and the Rule of EU Law, University of Liverpool

24 May – Mondialisation et circulation des personnes: rapport général, Journées internationales de l’Association Henri Capitant, University of Münster


2015

6 Nov. – Grenzen des Völkergewohnheitsrechts beim Klimaschutz, Entgrenzungen des Rechts: Perspektiven des Öffentlichen Rechts in Münster, University of Münster

25 Oct. – The Role of Ideology in the Debate on the Democratic Deficit of the European Union, CPG 6th Annual Conference: Law and Ideology, Thammasat University, Bangkok

10 Sept. – The Political Economy of the International Court of Justice: Judicial Strategies to Identify Customary International Law, Annual Conference of the European Society of International Law: The Judicialization of International Law: A Mixed Blessing?, University of Oslo

2 July – Balancing and Judicial Activism: How Courts are Coping with Normative Uncertainty when Applying the Proportionality Test, ICON-S 2015 Conference: Public Law in an Uncertain World, NYU School of Law, New York

19 June – Der Schutz von Minderheiten als Schranke der Meinungsäußerungsfreiheit, Jahrestagung der Deutschen Vereinigung für Internationales Recht, Frankfurt a.M.

18 June – El control constitucional de las medidas contra el terrorismo, Seguridad en Libertad: Congreso Internacional Jurídico, University of Konstanz

29 May – The Psychology of Judging: Judicial Strategies to Identify Customary International Law, Law & Society Association Conference, Seattle

22 May – Tiers et droit public: rapport allemand, Journées internationales de l’Association Henri Capitant, Universidad de Panama, Chitré


2014

10 Dec. – The German Constitutional Court and the EU Financial Architecture, Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance, University of Amsterdam

31 Oct. – Customary International Law and Public Goods, Custom in Crisis: International Law in a Changing World, Duke Law School, Durham

18 Sept. – The Concept of Constitutional and Legal Pluralism, 9th Annual Conference of the Group for Research on European and International Taxation, Universität Münster

27 June – Wettbewerbsbehörden als subsidiäre Regulierungsbehörden, habilitation lecture, University of Bonn

16 May – The Political Economy of Customary Law, The Political Economy of International Law, Università Sapienzia, Rome

5 Apr. – Legislative Inconsistency and the “Smoking Out” of Illicit Motives, 3rd Annual Younger Comparativists Conference,  Lewis & Clark Law School, Portland


2 Dec. –  Is There a Right to Pro-Democratic Intervention in International Law?, Ruhr-Universität Bochum

6 Sept. –  El principio de coherencia en la jurisprudencia del Órgano de Apelación de la OMC, Congreso Internacional de Derecho Público: Encrucijadas del Estado Moderno, Universidad Santo Tomás, Bogotá

13 July –  Customary Law, Consent, and the Status Quo Paradox, The Role of Opinio Juris in Customary International Law, Université de Genève

8 July –  How to Compare the Length of Lines to the Weight of Stones: Balancing and the Resolution of Value Conflicts in Public Law, 2nd Workshop on Comparative Administrative Law in Asia: Proportionality & Democratic Accountability, Academia Sinica, Taipei

14 Apr. –  Constitutional Courts and Legislative Capture, The Changing German Landscape of Theorizing Public Law, NYU School of Law, New York

6 Feb. –  Gerichte als Wettbewerbshüter des politischen Prozesses, 53. Assistententagung Öffentliches Recht: Das letzte Wort: Rechtsetzung & Rechtskontrolle in der Demokratie, University of Bern

2013


25 June –  Proportionality and the Incommensurability Challenge: Some Lessons from the South African Constitutional Court,  South African Institute for Advanced Constitutional, Public, Human Rights & International Law, University of Johannesburg

20 Apr. –  Empirical Arguments in Constitutional Law,  Law and Economics in Europe: Foundations and Applications, Universität Luzern

13 Jan. –  Eingriffsdogmatik aus deutscher Perspektive, Der Grundrechtseingriff, Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien

2012


28 Oct. –  Initiativen der UN zu Demokratisierung und Good Governance, Entwicklungstrends zu mehr globaler Demokratie: Eine Zwischenbilanz 15 Jahre nach der Agenda für Demokratisierung, Deutsche Gesellschaft für die Vereinten Nationen, Berlin

23 Sept. –  Antitrust Law and the Promotion of Democracy and Economic Growth,  28th Annual Conference of the European Association of Law & Economics, Hamburg

16 Aug. – The Role of Economics and Social Sciences in Constitutional Adjudication,  XXV. World Congress of Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy: Special Workshop ‘Law and Economics – Foundations and Applications’, University of Frankfurt a.M. 

19 July –  Judicial Balancing and Legislative Margin of Appreciation,  Paradoxes of Constitutionalism, Technical University Dresden

23 June – Antitrust Challenges of Deep Globalization, 12th Annual Conference of the American Antitrust Institute: International Economics for Antitrusters: Learning from Two Decades of Deep Globalization, Washington D.C.

2011


10 Dec. – Antitrust Law and the Promotion of Democracy and Economic Growth, Sixth Annual Conference of the Italian Society of Law and Economics, Bolzano

12 Nov. – The Role of Consent in the Formation of Customary International Law, ASIL Symposium on Reexamining Customary International Law, Washington D.C.

4 Nov. – The Effect of Antitrust Institutions on Economic Development and Democracy, Hamburg Lectures on Law and Economics, University of Hamburg

12 Jan. – Informationsgewinnung als Methodenproblem: Braucht die Rechtswissenschaft eine empirische Wende?, Karlsruher Dialog zum Informationsrecht, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

2010


2 Aug. –  International Law, Democracy and Cultural Diversity, Second Biennial General Conference of the Asian Society of International Law: International Law in a Multipolar and Multi-civilizational World: Asian perspectives, Challenges and Contributions, Tokyo

2009


6 Dec. –  Die Rechtsprechung des US Supreme Court zur innerstaatlichen Wirkung von Völkerrecht, Tagung des Arbeitskreises junger Völkerrechtler: Wirkung von Völkerrecht im innerstaatlichen Bereich, Vienna

12 June –  Rational Choice or Deliberation? – Customary International Law between Coordination and Constitutionalization,  Seminar on the New Institutional Economics: Coordination in the Absence of Sovereignty, Lübbenau

2008


7 Dec. –  Asia and the Right to Democratic Governance,  ALIN International Academic Conference: Asia’s Emerging Laws in the Digital Age, Bangkok

30 Nov. –  Anforderungen des Völkerrechts an die Legitimität politischer Entscheidungen: zwischen domaine réservé und right to democratic governance, Interdisziplinären Forschungskolloquium zur demokratischen Legitimität ethischer Entscheidungen, Heidelberg

2007


14 May –  A Democratic Union: Coherent Constitutional Concept or Prosaic Declaration of Intent?,  2nd German-Polish Seminar: The Unity of the European Constitution, Wroclaw

2005