“Workshop Visit Albin Eser”

Commemorative publication honors the former Max Planck Director

In tribute to our former Institute director Albin Eser, who passed away in 2023, the “Workshop Visit Albin Eser” [Werksbesichtigung Albin Eser] has been published as an open access volume by Duncker & Humblot.

The volume contains the lectures from the “Würzburg Workshop Visits” [Würzburger Werksbesichtigungen] that took place on 22/23 October 2021, including a detailed response penned by Albin Eser himself, which he was able to complete shortly before his death. Each “workshop visit” in the series presents the work of a particularly prominent, internationally renowned scholar, accompanied by thematically curated critical commentary. The series is modeled on the “Library of Living Philosophers,” initiated by US philosopher Paul Schilpp in 1939.

“This new ‘workshop visit’ is not only a personal tribute to a great researcher, but also—and above all—a genuine contribution to criminal law,” writes volume editor Eric Hilgendorf in his foreword. Scholarship is a collective enterprise, and researchers open up new paths for the human sciences through fresh perspectives, critical analysis, and imagination. Hilgendorf describes Albin Eser as “one of the most important representatives of contemporary German and international criminal law scholarship.” The contributions by Eser, now reprinted, by no means capture the full breadth of his work, but they do convey a vivid impression of his originality and intellectual creativity.

The work includes contributions by Tatjana Hörnle, Walter Perron, Reinhard Merkel, Bernd Hecker, Claus Kreß, Henning Rosenau, Bettina Weißer, Bertram Schmitt, Jörg Arnold, Frank Peter Schuster, and Eric Hilgendorf.

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Albin Eser, M.C.J. (NYU) was director of the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law (now the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law) in Freiburg from 1982 to 2003. He was a full professor emeritus at the University of Freiburg and holder of numerous honorary doctorates. Albin Eser was an outstanding criminal law scholar, judge at the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, and holder of the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class. He died on 20 January 2023 at the age of 87.