Research Activities at the Faculty

Reports of the Institutes and Departments

Research Activities at the Faculty

Civil law (in alphabetical order)

Prof. Ekkehard Becker-Eberhard
Chair of Civil Law and Law of Civil Procedure

In 2000, research fellow Dr. Bettina Heiderhoff primarily continued work on her Habilitation thesis entitled "European Legislation for Consumer Protection and German Private Law". In addition, she also contributed a number of articles to legal periodicals, including: "Neighbours' compensation claims under Section 906, para. 2, p. 2 of the German Civil Code", note to Federal Supreme Court WM 1999, p. 2168 , JA 2000, p. 357; "Contractual penalties incurred by the developer? – The possibilities and limitations of interpretation and content monitoring under the General Terms and Conditions Act", ZfIR 2000, p. 250ff.; "Burden of proof in demanding the return of advance payment", note on Federal Supreme Court NJW 2000, p. 1718, JA 2000, p. 913; "Influence of European private consumer protection law on German civil litigation law", in ZEuP 2001, issue 2.

In autumn, research assistant Dr. Holm Anders successfully completed his dissertation entitled "Neglect of Duty in the System of the Law of Default in Performance as a Model de lege ferenda". Moreover, he participated actively in the discussion about the reform of contract law proposed by the Ministry of Justice. In this connection he published a number of items in legal journals, most recently in early 2001.

Prof. Christian Berger
Chair of Civil Law, Law of Civil Procedure and Copyright

In addition, his research concentrated on issues of the drafting of contracts. This area of law, which previously has been left mainly to solicitors and notaries, requires a thorough scholarly review. Co-operation with the Faculty of Law's Research Institute of Solicitors' Law proved most valuable in this respect.

Prof. Burkhard Boemke
Chair of Civil Law, Labour and Social Law

One aspect of research in the year 2000 was in the area of didactic works on labour law for students. For example, works on the volume "Labour Law in Case Processing" was completed and will appear in the JuS series in 2001. The book "Case Collection on Labour Law" is about to be completed and will also be published in 2001 by publisher Springerverlag. Prof. Boemke also continued work on a commentary on the Act on the Supply of Workers by Temporary Employment Businesses.

Prof. Gero Dolezalek
Chair of Civil Law, Roman Law Focusing on Common Law and Church Legal History

Together with Scottish academics, he is also editing old law reports of the Court of Session, Edinburgh. In the meantime, "Sinclair's Practicks" (1540–49) have been published on the internet (www.uni-leipzig.de/~jurarom/scotland).

The chair has three research fellows: Barbara Bergé, BA (Cape Town), MA (Katowice); Assessor Hans-Martin Bregger; and Dr. phil. Frank Theisen.

Thanks to Barbara Bergé's computer skills, a database of legal books printed before 1940 has now been completed at the library of the University of Leipzig (http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~jurarom/catalog).

Hans-Martin Bregger finished his database on the law of the Protestant Church of Silesian Upper Lausitz: www.uni-leipzig.de/~jurarom/eksol. This database is regularly updated, as is the database on the law of the Protestant Church of Saxony, which Prof. Dolezalek completed in 1998 (http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~jurarom/kirche).

Frank Theisen studied the impact of European Union legislation on national law and hopes to submit a thesis on this topic for his Habilitation. In addition, he organised a symposium on agricultural law (29 May 2000) and participated in arranging the "European Forum of Young Legal Historians" (26–28 May 2000).

Prof. Franz Häuser
Chair of Civil Law, Bank and Stock Exchange Law, Labour Law

In 2000 Prof. Franz Häuser, who is in charge of bank and stock exchange law (a department which was externally funded until September 1999), completed the chapters for the Münchner Kommentar on the German Commercial Code on the giro procedures, credit transfer, cheques and direct debits for the part on payment transactions (partly in conjunction with W. Hadding).

His annotation of the regulations concerning wholesale trade (Sections 383ff. of the Commercial Code), also for the Münchener Kommentar on the Commercial Code, is almost complete.

Prof. Häuser has also thoroughly revised his annotations on Sections 762, 764 and 780–92 of the Civil Code for the 12th edition of Soergel's commentary on the German Civil Code. He contributed an article on "The image of man in the study of law" to the conference proceedings published by Reinhold Biskup and Rolf Hasse on "The Image of Man in Society". He also wrote annotations on legal rulings for the WuB collection.

Prof. Bernd-Rüdiger Kern
Chair of Civil Law, Legal History and Medical Law

Prof. Thomas Rauscher
Chair of International Private Law, Comparative Law and Civil Law

At the end of the year, he published another article for the same commentary covering the law of personal contact between a parent not having custody and the child (Sections 1684, 1685, 1686 BGB).

Throughout the year he continued work on a book on family law, scheduled to be published in mid-2001

Research on the consequences of the implementation of the Federal Republic of Germany's civil law following German reunification continued to be another topic of research (see Prof. Rauscher's 1997 contribution on Articles 230–35 Introductory Law to the German Civil Code – EGBGB); a revised edition is in preparation, to be published by the end of 2002.

As the regional member of the managing committee of the German–American Lawyers Association, Prof. Rauscher had the pleasure of welcoming several colleagues from US law schools who spoke on current issues regarding US and international legal matters.

Prof. Reinhard Welter
Chair of Civil Law, German and International Commercial Law

The Department's research focuses on economic relevant aspects of civil law and the development of civil law, competition law and public commercial law (especially bank supervision law) resulting from increasing internationalisation and the influence of European law.

In the three-volume banking manual published by Beck in 1997, Prof. Welter wrote the four main chapters on the law of international banking; at present work is underway on the second edition, which is due to be published spring of 2001. In the manual on capital investment (the second edition of which was published by Beck in 1997), Prof. Welter acted as co-author in charge of the law on futures trading, especially with respect to legal aspects in connection with cross-border transactions. After the provision of a loose-leaf supplement, work is continuing with respect to the third edition of the capital investment manual.

Another area of research was the law on collateral. In this connection, work on the bank guarantee from a German and a foreign viewpoint has been prepared for the Müchener Kommentar on the German Commercial Code, to be published by Beck.

Together with F. Häuser, Prof. Welter worked on an annotation of Sections 675 and 676 for Soergel's commentary on the German Civil Code, which has since been published. The annotation includes areas such as the lawyer's contract, construction supervision and development, and above all banking transactions regarded as agency. For this commentary, the law of bearer debenture, the savings book and annuity for life already discussed in the previous edition are being dealt with for the forthcoming 12th edition.

In a project lasting a number of years, Prof. Welter is currently working on an annotation of consumer credit legislation, which is due to be published by Springer.

Prof. Welter gave a talk on "Legal aspects of financing business start-ups" during a symposium on "Research Findings of Business Start-ups" held at the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at Friedrich Alexander University in Erlangen-Nuremberg. He delivered a paper, which was published in 2000.

For a conference at the University of Siena in November 2000, Prof. Welter wrote and delivered a contribution dealing with the "The independence of the European Central Bank – the German perspective". The conference proceedings will be published by Kluwer.

However, Prof. Welter's research work in the area of German and European commercial law is ultimately reflected in his teaching, which in 2000 (as in previous years) dealt with the current state of development in lectures and seminars at St. Gallen University and the University of Warsaw.

Work on the transformation of the legal system and legal aspects of accession was continued in a festschrift article on "Mortgages in the settlement of property law", which was published in 2000.

Criminal Law

Prof. Michael Kahlo
Chair of Criminal Law, Law of Criminal Procedure and Philosophy of Law

Prof. Kahlo's second area of research involved an examination of modern theories of property, particularly those developed since Locke. Here he analysed the extent to which these theories might lend credibility to the above-mentioned changes, and examined whether they would allow for the concept of a legal and moral responsibility for the environment.

In addition, he continued his research on the relationship between the criminal act, culpability and the sentence imposed, placing particular emphasis on the problem of "the Constitution and life imprisonment".

Prof. Heribert Schumann
Chair of Criminal Law, Economic Offences Law and Protection for Youth

His previous research assistant I. Ulich, who now works in the German Ministry of Justice, had her dissertation on "The Concept of Pornography and EU Television Guidelines" published by Nomos in Baden-Baden. Research assistant M. Ullrich worked on her dissertation entitled "The Programming Principle of Human Dignity and the Sanctionability of its Violation".

Prof. Manfred Seebode
Chair of Criminal Law, Law of Criminal Procedure, Criminology and Law of Prison Administration

1. The German system of penal sanctions, especially the law and reality of (pre-trial) detention, prison overcrowding, imprisonment for the non-payment of a fine, community service.
2. The relations of German police law to the German law of criminal procedure in the European Union.
3. The criminal responsibility of judges.

Public Law

Prof. Christoph Degenhart
Chair of State and Administrative Law, Environmental, Commercial and Planning Law

In October 2000, Prof. Degenhart reported on the matters of law concerning the auction of UMTS licences at a symposium in Hamburg. The main focus was questions of telecommunications law and constitutional telecommunication law.

As far as material constitutional law – his other main field – is concerned, the textbook "Staatsrecht I/Staatsorganisationsrecht" was revised for the 16th edition, which appeared in September 2000. His commentary on legislative competences (Sections 70–75 Basic Law) and the judicial liberties (Sections 101–104 Basic Law) for the Commentary on the German Constitution, published by C.H. Beck, the collection of material for the third edition, scheduled to appear in 2001/2002, was continued.

Prof. Degenhart also addressed questions of the financial constitution and financial control. In January 2000 the review "Zeitschrift für Gesetzgebung" published an article about "Legislation Scale Formation as a Postulate of the Financial Constitution of the Basic Law", commenting on the decision of the Federal Consitutional Court about the redistribution of income between Federal Government, the regional government and the local authorities. In a special edition of the review "Die Verwaltung" in remembrance of the deceased former president of the Federal Auditor-General's office, Ernst Heuer, Prof. Degenhart published a treatise about "Legal Issues of Current Auditing by the Audit Office".

The work of Prof. Degenhart in administrative law was concentrated on planning and construction laws and regulations. He participated in writing a commentary on the Saxon building regulations, which he himself edited in June 2000. The festschrift "Centenary of General Building Law in Saxony", co-edited by Prof. Degenhart, appeared at the end of 2000, including his article "Privatisation of Building Supervisory Auditing Functions". Based on his statement on legal issues of a Saxon excavation law, Prof. Degenhart wrote an article for the yearbook on environmental and technology law. An article about the problems created by planning the excavation of lignite appeared in the festschrift for Werner Hoppe. Furthermore, Prof. Degenhart and Nannette Ruß wrote a textbook entitled "Construction Law in Saxony", based on a lecture manuscript.

During a hearing before the internal committee of the Saxon parliament Prof. Degenhart spoke about the intention of a law concerning shortcomings in the founding of municipal co-operation agreements. The speech was based on a treatise which will appear in 2001.

Together with Prof. Klaus Stern, Prof. Degenhart reported and held a discussion during an event organised by the publisher C.H. Beck during the Leipzig Book Fair in 2000. Prof. Degenhart's essay has been published in the publishing house's internet presentation.

In 2000, assistant lecturer Dr. Jan-Christoph Krüger worked on urban planning and construction law and continued preparing his thesis on "Procedures for Reporting, Exemption from Planning Permission and Notification in Construction Law – Types of Procedures and Questions of Legal Protection" for publication. Furthermore, he contributed some paragraphs to Prof. Degenhart's Commentary on Saxon building regulations.

Wolfgang Lent, supervised by Prof. Degenhart, passed his doctoral examination with magna cum laude, writing a thesis on "Broadcasting, Media and Teleservices".

In the year 2000, the main emphasis of PD Dr. Edin Sarcevic's work was constitutional law. In summer 2000, his monograph "The Federal Principle" was published (Mohr-Siebeck, Jus Publicum, Vol. 55). The monograph presents the findings of his investigations into the federal order of the German constitution, as well as its relevance for the European Union, conducted over several years. In the context of this issue, the question of the constitutional significance of the principle of subsidiarity was elaborated. This treatise was published in "Zeitschrift für Gesetzgebung", Issue 4/2000.

Another focus of research is the dogmatic treatment of the freedom of worship, analysed from the point of view of the Moslem muezzin call. Interest centred on questions concerning the restriction of an unreserved civil liberty by administrative law. The reader's attention is also drawn to the article in the review "DVBl" 8/2000 and the publication concerning the muezzin call and the freedom of worship in Volume 46 of "Leipziger Juristische Vorträge", 2000.

In November 2000, an article appeared in the review "Die öffentliche Verwaltung" about the problem of co-operation between the European Court of Justice and the German Constitutional Court.

Dr. Sarcevic also applied himself to the questions of the international public law of treaties. He analysed a problem which has not yet been dealt with in the literature, namely the requirements under which a national constitution can be created by an international treaty. An extensive investigation will be published in 2001 by the "Archiv für Völkerrecht".

Prof. Christoph Enders
Chair of Public Law Focusing on Environmental Law

In the year 2000, Prof. Christoph Enders dealt above all during his research semester (summer 2000) with the preparation and formulation of preliminary remarks on Section 1 of the Basic Law within his co-authorship of the "Berlin Commentary of the Basic Law" (pub.: Friauf, Höfling). He focused in particular on current issues of the dogmatics, interpretation and theory of the Basic Law, especially the attempt to produce an opposition law reconstruction of the traditionally handed-down functions of the Basic Law.

In this contribution on "The Relationship of Tension between the Freedom of Opinion and Rights of the Individual, Note on Federal Constitutional Court, ruling dated 23 February 2000, 1 BvR 1582/94", JZ 2000, 1108–1111, the Court's non-acceptance of a complaint about an infringement of the Constitution regarding a civil-court ruling prohibiting the display of a list of names of Stasi informers was discussed. The ruling was described and critically analysed within the context of previous rulings on this theme.

His article "The Enforcement of the Basic Administrative Act as a Subject of Opposition to Judicial Enforcement alongside the Requisition Order, NVwZ 2000, 1232–1238" dealt with the issues of practical importance surrounding the legal protection of citizens in the case of the enforcement of administrative acts against the subsequent bill of costs in administrative enforcement. This focused in particular on the problem of the separate contestability of the basic administrative act. A general solution was developed starting from recent Supreme Court decisions.

Prof. Rudolf Geiger
Chair of Public Law, International Law and European Law

In 2000, research activities at the chair of Professor Dr. Rudolf Geiger and the Institute for Public International Law, European Law and Foreign Public Law focused on international and European law and its implications and effects on national law. The research activities also included the field of human rights law. Professor Richard L. Williamson Jr., Associate Dean of the University of Miami (Florida), School of Law, spent the academic year 2000/2001 as guest professor of the Leipzig Faculty of Law under the Fulbright Program.

Prof. Rudolf Geiger published the third edition of his EU/EEC commentary and worked on his book entitled "German Basic Law and Public International Law". He gave a lecture on "Europe after Amsterdam" to the Munich Law Association.

Dr. Roman Schmidt-Radefeldt, a research assistant at the Institute, published his doctoral thesis on "Environmental Human Rights – Environmental Interpretation of Human Rights within the ECHR and its Effects on German Fundamental Laws Protecting the Environment". He published a paper on "Military Forces and Homosexuality" and continued his Habilitation on questions of German military integration.

Liv Jaeckel, a research assistant at the Institute, completed her doctoral thesis on "Duties to Protect Human Rights in German and European Law". She also published a paper on "Expropriation for Reasons of Energy Economy".

A number of LL.M. students of the Institute's Masters programme "European Integration Law" successfully completed their studies and several doctoral candidates supervised by Prof. Rudolf Geiger attained their doctoral degrees.

The Institute invited Dr. Ernst Martens as a guest lecturer from the Foreign Office in Berlin to speak about reservation clauses in international human rights treaties. Professor Richard L. Williamson lectured on American Law.

Prof. Helmut Goerlich
Chair of State and Administrative Law, History of the Constitution and State Church Law

In 2000 Prof. Helmut Goerlich focused in his academic research on media law (especially on broadcasting law), church and state law, law of public finance and allocation of revenue. He wrote various articles and essays concerning some problems of these branches of law. IN particular he investigated the law of financing public broadcasting. He will participate in publishing a commentary on these questions.

Moreover, he took part in several academic conferences and seminars. On 28 and 29 April he participated in "Constitutional Law Conference on Implementation of the Basic Law: A Comparative Perspective" in Hong Kong, where he gave a lecture on "The Role of the Constitutional Court in the Resolution of Constitutional Disputes – A Critical Outline Guided by the German Example". On 12–15 September Prof. Goerlich took part in a conference on questions of the association of Turkey with the European Union in Izmir, Turkey, where he presented some thoughts on the execution of law and decisions.

Prof. Goerlich chaired together with Dr. Richter and Prof. Link a seminar on tolerance in constitutional law and church and state law in the summer. In winter he organised a seminar on neutrality as a principle of constitutional law. Finally, he led together with Prof. Degenhart several seminars on questions of media law.

Furthermore, the staff in Prof. Goerlich's department published in several areas. Assistant lecturer Dr. Berthold Kastner researched law of intervention by the police, as well as the law of the protection of historic buildings and monuments. Research fellow Torsten Schmidt researched judicial questions of contract law for internet providers and telecommunications services. Gerd Schliebe published several editions of his bibliography of legal literature and judicial decisions, entitled "Kuselit-R".

Prof. Martin Oldiges
Chair of Public Law, especially State and Administrative Law

In the field of environmental law, the Institute for Planning and Environmental Law of the University of Leipzig held its annual conference on 21 and 22 June 2000. The topic of this year's conference, the fifth since 1996, was "Influencing Behaviour by Levies in Environmental Law". It dealt with the question of whether taxes or other fiscal charges can be used as a means to influence or control the behaviour of companies and private individuals with respect to the exploitation of environmental resources. In his speech Prof. Oldiges discussed the question whether direct regulatory controls or fiscal charges are more suitable as a safeguard against the exhaustion of environmental resources. All speeches held at this conference were published in Volume 7 of the "Leipziger umweltrechtliche Dokumentationen". Other subjects of Prof. Oldiges' research in the field of environmental law were legal questions of the implementation of the "Kreislaufwirtschafts- und Abfallgesetz" (the law regulating waste and recycling) with respect to the waste policies of the Free State of Saxony and problems of the new concept of "river basin management" according to the planned EU Water Framework Directive.

In the field of planning and building law, Prof. Oldiges edited jointly with Professors Bauer, Breuer and Degenhart the festschrift "Centenary of General Building Law in Saxony". In this anthology he published an essay on the protection of neighbour rights by public law. In addition, Prof. Oldiges published articles on the fictitious administrative act and the law regulating military and non-military service.

Assistant lecturers Dr. Ralf Brinktrine and Dr. Herwig Unnerstall continued their academic research for their postdoctoral theses. Dr. Ralf Brinktrine published several articles on constitutional and administrative law. Furthermore, he was editor of "Alte und neue Streitfragen im Bau-, Umwelt- und Telekomunikationsrecht", a collection of essays on planning, environment and media law. In the field of local government law Dr. Ralf Brinktrine and Dr. Herwig Unnerstall jointly published a study on legal problems of the "Stadt-Umland-Gesetz Leipzig", a statute dealing with the incorporation of independent town and villages around Leipzig into the City of Leipzig.

Prof. Holger Stadie
Chair of Public Law, especially State and Administrative Law

Other research activities concerned sales tax law, especially fundamental issues thereof, as well as problems of affiliation and alterations to the tax base. His findings were included in the revisions of the corresponding notes in Rau/Dürrwächter (pub.), Sales Tax Act, Cologne 2000 ("Introduction into the Sales Tax Act", Sections 2 and 17).

Research fellow Dr. Bernhard Frye completed his doctorate on "State supervision of the public media".

Institutes

Institute of Solicitors' Law

The Institute of Solicitors' Law was founded in August 1997, and commenced teaching and research at the end of the same year. During the upheaval currently being experienced by the legal profession in Germany and Europe, and at a time in which large numbers of graduates are choosing a career as a solicitor or lawyer, the aim of the Institute is to take lawyers' viewpoints more strongly into account in law teaching at the University of Leipzig. Moreover, contact between theory and practice are promoted by the inclusion of lawyers and notaries in teaching.

Dissertations concerning solicitors' law are supervised. For example, a dissertation was submitted in autumn 2000 entitled "Restrictions on Lawyers' Advertising in Professional and Competition Law and the Relationship between them" by Konstantin Pohlmann, whose doctoral procedure is shortly to be completed.

Other aspects of work dealt with by the Institute in the year 2000 included legal problems of legal consulting by telephone and on the internet, as well as the presentation of solicitors and letters on the internet and professional co-operation among lawyers (both nationally and international).

Under the overall heading "Future Lawyers", lectures and seminars were held about the law profession.

The Institute of Solicitors' Law at the University of Leipzig co-operates closely with institutes and departments of solicitors' law at other German universities.

Institute of Labour and Social Law

Institute of Foreign and European Private and Procedural Law

Institute of German and International Law of Banking and Capital Markets

Institute of Legal Protection for Youth and Criminal Law of the Media

Institute of Broadcasting Law

Institute of Environmental and Planning Law

• Prof. Martin Oldiges: Planning and building law, conservation law and miscellaneous environmental law
• Prof. Christoph Degenhart: Planning and building law, mining and energy law, atomic law and miscellaneous environmental law
• Prof. Christoph Enders: Spatial and specialised planning law, pollution law, and miscellaneous environmental law
• Prof. Helmut Goerlich: Planning and building law, conservation law, environmental law and empirical legal research

Institute of International Law, European Law and Foreign Public Law

See under: Prof. Rudolf Geiger (Chair of Public Law, International Law and European Law)