Department of Public Law

Head of project: Fe­de­ri­co Lo­ren­zo Ra­maio­li
This comparative philosophy of law dissertation aims at formulating a new analytical approach to the Islamic legal tradition based on ‘juridical categories’, a concept that facilitates comprehension and understanding of juridical phenomena. more

Head of project: Ben­ja­min Rus­te­berg
This project deals with action-oriented measures of personal prevention in police law, which are linked to predic­tions that a particular person will behave unlaw­fully in the future. Such measures can be found in almost all areas of the special administrative law, ranging from reliability under commercial law, to the character fitness of a holder of a driving licence, to defence measures against terrorism. more

Head of project: Frie­de­mann Groth
This doctoral thesis aims to contextualize understandings of the ‘State’ ex­pressed within the gun laws of Germany and the United States. A cultural legal study, this project offers instructive observations on basic conceptions in legal science. more

Head of project: Laura Wallenfels
To limit the exercise of police powers, German public security law authorizes police to avert so-called dangers. That is, a ‘danger’ is a condition for legitimate use of police power. ‘Danger’ thereby is a term of art. Not all risks are ‘dan­gers’, and in the common doctrine, there is only a ‘danger’ in the case of a ‘sufficient probability of dam­age’. more

Head of project: Phil­ipp Joh­ner
In recent attacks in Paris and Brussels, terrorists used weapons and explosive vests to kill or injure as many people possible. To effectively foil such attacks, one must identify perpetrators from a distance and stop them before they reach dense crowds. This is not possible using current means. more

Head of project: Sa­rah Prauns­män­del
In the quest for public security, communication is the most important operational resource used by police. When Ger­man police act in a preventive capacity, officers generally speak German while performing their duties. To over­come language barriers, the police may deviate from German, but there is no clear obligation to communicate in other languages. more

Heads of project: R. Poscher, S. El­lebrecht, St. Ja­ro­li­mek, St. Kauf­mann
Considering Germany’s diversifying society, the question arises whether its police forces can contribute to an open and plural society and how they should be organized. This joint research project involves three leading public se­cu­rity institutions: the Centre for Security and Society at the University of Freiburg; the Deutsche Hochschule der Poli­zei; and the Department of Public Law at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law. more

Head of project: Sofiya Kartalova
As a result of mounting migratory, currency, and judicial reform tensions, the European Union (EU) is currently con­front­ing a rule of law crisis. Rather than focus solely on issues of political legitimacy, recent scholarship proposes reframing this crisis as an absence of trust among EU Member States as well as between some of the EU Member States and EU institutions. more

Head of project: Lukas Landerer
Data retention characteristically involves storing mass data of persons not suspected of criminal or otherwise dan­ger­ous behaviour, and making this data accessible to security authorities. In 2014, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) held that a telecommunications data directive violated European fundamental rights and declared it invalid.
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