Events
April 2024
Interdisciplinary conference: “Der Neü Layenspiegel von Ulrich Tengler” - The German-language Augsburg law book between the Middle Ages and modern times in Europe
From April 24 to 26, 2024, the conference “Der Neü Layenspiegel von Ulrich Tengler” took place at the Schwabenakademie Irsee. The interdisciplinary conference was organized by Professors Dr. Christoph Becker (Law), Dr. Klaus Wolf (PhilHist) and Dr. Thomas M.J. Möllers (Law) and will result in a book project that will be published in the Augsburg Faculty of Law's publication series by Nomos Verlag. Project sponsors are the Kurt and Felicitas Viermetz Foundation, the Dr. Eugen Liedl Foundation, the Society of Friends of the University of Augsburg, the District of Swabia, the Historical Association for Swabia, the Swabian Academy Irsee, the City of Nördlingen and the Bayerische Einigung e.V. Bayerische Volksstiftung.
April 2024
Lecture in Potsdam at the Third Colloquium on Legal Methodology
On 22 March 2024, Professor Dr. Thomas M.J. Möllers gave a lecture on “Language models such as ChatGPT and legal methodology” at the colloquium “Methodology and Digitalization” at the University of Potsdam, which was organized by Prof. Dr. Susanne Hähnchen. Exciting presentations and interesting discussions were held as part of this third colloquium on methodology, which dealt with disruptive changes that challenge the law. Dogmatics, for example, has to deal with new problems in detail and find solutions. But the question must also be asked at the meta-level of the rules of legal application: What influence does digitalization have on legal methodology? And vice versa: How does methodology react to technical developments, what contribution can it make? The results of the colloquium will be published in a conference volume by Mohr Verlag.
May 2023
Interdisciplinary conference “Securing prosperity through voluntary long-term employment
On May 15 and 16, the Faculty of Law at the University of Augsburg, under the direction of Professor Dr. Thomas M.J. Möllers and Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. Lars P. Feld (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg) held the conference “Securing prosperity through voluntary long-term employment”. Against the backdrop of advancing demographic change and the associated challenges of labor shortages on the one hand and the increasing financial requirements of pension systems on the other, the interdisciplinary conference explored the extent to which voluntary long-term employment can be a building block in solving these problems. The focus was on the situation at German universities and how this can be improved. This is because there is a great willingness among professors to work beyond the normal retirement age. However, the existing legal provisions are only rudimentary, which in practice leads to a patchwork quilt in the German university landscape. From a legal perspective, the conference analyzed the legal framework under civil service and higher education law, taking into account the prohibition of age discrimination under European law. From an economic point of view, the conference dealt with the economic effects of demographic developments on the one hand and the individual business interests of a university on the other.
May 2023
Seminar on the history of law in Pisa
From 24 to 26 May 2023, Professor Dr. Christoph Becker organized a seminar on legal history at the Università di Pisa on the topic of “The future jurist: a man of culture or a technocrat?”. Together with Professor Dr Wojciech Dajczak (University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznań), Professor Dr Aldo Petrucci (Università di Pisa), Professor Dr Bronisław Sitek (SWSP University of Social Science and Humanities) and Professor Dr Costas Vlahos (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), the seminar examined the extent to which technological progress and increasing digitalization will affect the traditional job profile of the lawyer.
bis zu drei Beiträge auf einer internationalen Konferenz präsentiert.
March 2023
Guest lectureship at the Université Jean Moulin in Lyon
From 10 to 21 March 2023, Professor Dr. Thomas M.J. Möllers was a visiting professor at the Université Jean Moulin Lyon III at the invitation of Professor Dr. Frédérique Ferrand. Professor Ferrand has been a lecturer at the Augsburg Summer Program for many years. Professor Möllers gave the lecture “Introduction to German Civil Law (BGB)” for third-year French students. The event was aimed in particular at students taking part in an exchange program with a German university in the following winter semester. He also gave the English lecture “The Wirecard accounting scandal in Germany” in the Auditorium Malraux - Manufacture des tabacs on March 16.
October 2022
Lecture series in Palermo - Legal Methods and the Harmonization of Private Law in Europe
After the corona wave subsided, the lecture series in Palermo could be resumed. Professor Dr. Möllers gave two lectures. The first, “Legal Methods and the Harmonization of Private Law in Europe”, presented the primacy of European law and compared the German legal situation with that of Italy. In particular, the PSPP ruling and the case law of the Federal Constitutional Court were critically assessed. The Faculty of Law at the University of Palermo has a multi-year doctoral program and, within this framework, an elite postdoctoral program. The postdoc candidates Giancarlo Geraci and Giuseppe Rocchè commented on the lecture. A second lecture on October 7, 2022 dealt with the scope and limits of interpretation and further development of the law in conformity with the directive. Prof. Dr. Möllers compared the German and Austrian situation. Co-presentations followed from Laura Cacopardi, Carla Failla, Paolo Iervolino and Ruggero Siciliano.
July 2022
11th conference for assistants in employment law
Labor law as judicial law?
From July 28 to 30, 2022, the 11th conference for assistants in employment law took place at the Faculty of Law of the University of Augsburg under the direction of Dr. Carmen Freyler. Under the general theme of “Labor Law as Judicial Law?”, around 100 doctoral students, post-doctoral students and junior professors discussed the theses presented in ten specialist lectures by young labor law academics on the role of case law in the further development of labor law. To kick off the event, the organizers Dr. Carmen Freyler and Junior Professor Dr. Stephan Gräf (University of Konstanz) invited guests from the labour courts, the legal profession and labour law academia to a keynote speech by Ms. Inken Gallner, President of the Federal Labour Court on the topic of “Labour Law as Judicial Law - Communication of the Courts between Luxembourg, Strasbourg, Karlsruhe and Erfurt”. The results of the exchange will be published in a conference volume by Nomos Verlag.
The conference for assistants in employment law is a central forum for young academics in employment law and takes place at different venues each year. It is financed by third-party funds raised by the respective organizers.
March 2022
The ECB and Its Watchers XXII, March 17th in Frankfurt
At the conference "The ECB and Its Watchers" central bankers, financial market participants and academics discuss current issues of monetary policy and financial stability. The impact of the Ukraine war as well as the significance of climate change and the green transformation on monetary policy were at the forefront of this year's conference on March 17th in Frankfurt. (…)
The ECB and Its Watchers XXII, March 17th
EU-Talk: 30 Jahre CELOS
On the occasion of the 30th anniversary celebration, the members of CELOS presented the following workshop discussions on current issues of European law in cooperation between the Faculty of Law of the University of Augsburg and the City of Augsburg on June 24, 2021.
Greetings by the Dean of the Faculty of Law, Professor Dr. Arndt Koch and Mrs. Regina Völk from Europe Direct.
Professor Möllers gave a short summary of the 30-year history of the Institute.
In detail, the following made presentations:
Frau Professor Dr. Martina Benecke
Rufbereitschaft als Arbeitszeit - ein Feuerwehrmann aus Offenbach vor dem Europäischen Gerichtshof
(On-call duty as working time - a firefighter from Offenbach before the European Court of Justice)
Herr Professor Dr. Michael Kort
Datenschutzverstöße können „wehtun“ – Sanktionen im europäischen Datenschutzrecht
(Data protection violations can "hurt" - Sanctions in European data protection law)
Herr Professor Dr. Thomas M.J. Möllers
Green Deal, nachhaltige Finanzprodukte – können wir so die Umwelt retten?
(Green Deal, sustainable financial products - is this how we can save the environment?)
Herr Professor Dr. Christoph Becker
Europas Zivilgesetzbücher - kein Flickenteppich
(Europe's civil codes - not a patchwork quilt)
Frau Akad. Rätin a.Z. Dr. Carmen Freyler
Urlaub in Europa – Zwang zur Freizeit und Erholung für Erben?
(Vacation in Europe - compulsion for leisure and recreation for heirs?)
At the end of the two-hour event, a lively discussion ensued on the various presentations.
The individual presentations can be accessed as videos (in the German language).
Academic Activities of the Celos-Members
May 2020
German-Polish seminar in Warszawa (Poland)
The fifth Polish-German comparative legal history seminar was planned for the summer semester 2020. From 27 to 30 May 2020, Prof. Dr. Christoph Becker wanted to take a trip to Warsaw with Augsburg students and graduates. The group was to meet lecturers and fellow students from Poland as well as from Greece, Italy and the Czech Republic at the host institution of Prof. Dr. Bronisław Sitek (Warsaw University of Social and Human Sciences). The seminar topic was: "Legal handbook - A European perspective". The title aims at searching for similarities and differences in the system-defining developments of legal teaching, especially textbooks. The state measures taken to combat the Covid 19 pandemic prevented the encounter. It has been postponed to the summer semester 2021.
October 2019
Lecture tour to Palermo (Sicily)
At the invitation of Prof. Enrico Camilleri, Prof. Dr. Thomas M.J. Möllers visited the University of Palermo on 8 and 9 October 2019 and gave two lectures in English on "Legal Methods - A Comparison of the German and Italian Approach" and "The Legal Consequences of the Volkswagen Scandal - Better Enforcement of Private and Public Law".The university is one of the largest in Italy with about 50,000 students and 2,000 academic staff. Prof. Camilleri also participated this year as a lecturer in the Augsburg Summer Program.
October 2019
German-Turkish symposium in Istanbul (Turkey)
On 4 October 2019, a symposium on current developments in German and Turkish liability law took place at the Faculty of Law of the University of Istanbul. The participating CELOS members gave the following lectures:
- Prof. Dr. Thomas Möllers: Enforcement in Consumer Protection and Capital Markets Law - Current Developments in Germany and Europe
- Prof. Dr. Martina Benecke: The liability of the employer and the modern technique
- Prof. Dr. Michael Kort: Possibilities of limiting the seller's liability when buying a company
In addition to professors from the University of Augsburg, speakers from the host university also reported on current developments in Turkish tort law. After the lectures there was a lively discussion. In the conference room were about 120 participants, mainly consisting of students, assistants, lecturers, professors and lawyers from Istanbul. At the end of the symposium, both sides confirmed and emphasised that the symposium had certainly made a good contribution to the German-Turkish legal dialogue and friendship.
July 2019
European Cultural History Day
As a member of the Institute for European Cultural History at the University of Augsburg, Prof. Dr. Christoph Becker was involved in the organisation of the interdisciplinary conference "Europe - Cultural Historical Horizons - Day of European Cultural History". It took place on 1 July 2019 on the premises of the University of Augsburg. Prof. Dr. Becker gave a lecture on European legal history with the title "Augsburg in Europe -The Augsburg City Law of 1156 and Roman Law".
May 2019
Results of the Conference “Enforcing Consumer and Capital Markets Law in Europe”
The second INspiRE conference on "Private Enforcement of European Competition and State Aid Law: Current Challenges and the Way Forward" was held in Augsburg on 23 and 24 May 2019. The Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence "European Integration - Rule of Law and Enforcement" (INspiRE), funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, deals with the enforcement of EU law in the Member States.
At the international conference "Enforcing Consumer and Capital Market Law in Europe", numerous experts discussed how the diesel emission scandal is being dealt with legally in different countries. It was shown that in the USA, Australia and Brazil public law sanctions and compensation of buyers are already being enforced much more successfully than in most European countries. Scientists, judges, but also representatives of supervisory authorities (BaFin and ESMA) and consumer associations intensively discussed how the respective law can be improved at national and European level to prevent future infringements. As in data protection law, European politicians should understand good law enforcement mechanisms not as an obstacle to location but as an economic advantage of location.
November 2018
Private Enforcement of European Competition and State Aid Law: Current Challenges and the Way Forward
On 22 and 23 November 2018, the first INspiRE conference on "Private Enforcement of European Competition and State Aid Law: Current Challenges and the Way Forward", organised by Prof. Dr. Thomas M.J. Möllers, Prof. Dr. Ferdinand Wollenschläger and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Wurmnest, took place in Augsburg.
The Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence "European Integration - Rule of Law and Enforcement" (INspiRE), funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, deals with the enforcement of EU law in the Member States.
The first of two conferences was devoted to private enforcement of European anti-trust and state aid law. On the first day, recent developments, in particular after the transposition of the so-called anti-trust damages directive, as well as remaining hurdles in the enforcement of Art. 101, 102 TFEU in different EU Member States were highlighted. After a presentation of the project by Prof. Dr. Thomas M.J. Möllers and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Wurmnest, Prof. Dr. Wulf-Henning Roth (Bonn) and Dr. Johannes Holzwarth (DG Competition) looked at the European level. For the following country reports, Prof. Dr. Jens-Uwe Franck (Mannheim), Dr. Erik-Jan Zippro (Amsterdam) and Prof. Dr. Florian Wagner-von Papp (University College London) presented the situation in Germany, the Netherlands, England and Wales. Dr. Rafael Amaro (Paris Descartes) and Prof. Dr. Enrico Camilleri (Palermo) presented the legal situation in France and Italy. Prof. Florian Bien (Würzburg), Dr Tatjana Mühlbach and Dr Ingo Brinker (both Munich) chaired the subsequent discussions.
On the second day, European state aid law and the open questions of private enforcement were discussed. Dr. Fernando Pastor-Merchante (IE University Madrid) presented the European perspective, Luca Rossi the view of the European Commission. Country reports on the situation in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands were presented by Prof. Dr. Sebastian Unger (Bochum), Prof. Dr. François Lichère (Jean Moulin Lyon III), Prof. Dr. Roberto Caranta and Benedetta Biancardi (both Turin), Prof. Dr. Luis Arroyo Jiménez (Castilla-La Mancha), as well as Prof. Dr. Willemien den Ouden (Leiden) and Prof. Dr. Jacobine van den Brink (Amsterdam) and provided an insight into specific national problems. Dr. Ulrich Soltész, Stéphane Hautbourg (both Brussels) and Prof. Dr. Ferdinand Wollenschläger led the discussion.
The conference proceedings will be published in the Kluwer International Competition Law Series.
November 2018
German-Turkish symposium in Ankara (Turkey)
On 2 November 2018, a German-Turkish symposium on current developments in civil law was held in Ankara as part of a cooperation between TOBB University of Economics and Technology and the University of Augsburg. From the University of Augsburg, Prof. Dr. Martina Benecke, Prof. Dr. Raphael Koch, Prof. Dr. Michael Kort, Prof. Dr. Thomas M.J. Möllers and Dr. Erhan Temel attended the symposium. They gave lectures on consumer protection law, the law of business acquisitions and methodology.
October 2018
Lectures by Prof. Dr. Thomas M.J. Möllers in Palermo
At the invitation of Prof. Enrico Camilleri, who himself taught at the University of Augsburg as part of the Summer Program 2018, Prof. Möllers gave two lectures at the Università degli Studi di Palermo in October 2018. The lecture on Tuesday, October 2nd, was entitled "The duty of direct-conform interpretation and the contra legem border" and took place in the Department of Law, Society and Sport. On the following day, a second event was held on the topic "How lawyers are thinking".
30 May 2018
German-Polish seminar in Poznan (Poland)
The fourth German-Polish comparative legal history seminar took place in the summer semester 2018. From 27 to 30 May 2018, Prof. Dr. Christoph Becker took a trip to Poznań together with Augsburg students and graduates. There they met the host Prof. Dr. Wojciech Dajczak (Adam Mickiewicz University Poznań) and Prof. Dr. Bronisław Sitek (Social and Human Sciences University of Warsaw) with their students and graduates. The binational seminar held at Poznań was titled: "Legal reasoning and continuity of Roman law tradition".
Together, the speakers and participants in the discussion looked for similarities and differences in the standardisation of and arguments for the practical handling of civil-law issues relating to classical Roman law, European common law and modern codifications, with a particular focus on parallels in the development of the two neighbouring legal systems of Poland and Germany. A continuation is intended.
28 May 2018
Conference „Judicial legal training and its limits“
On 28 May 2018, Prof. Dr. Thomas M.J. Möllers took part in a conference organised by the University of Vienna
and the Supreme Court (OGH) on the topic of "Judicial legal training and its limits". The venue was the banqueting hall of the Supreme Court at the Palace of Justice in Vienna. Prof. Dr. Möllers had been invited because of his relevant publications, such as his recent book on legal methodology. The conference dealt with the conditions and limits of judicial creation of law from the perspective of ordinary law, constitutional law and European law. The perspective of European law was examined by Prof. Dr. Möllers in his lecture "Judicial legal training and European law".
March 2018
Keynote speech at the workshop on innovation, competitiveness & internationalisation in Turin
At the invitation of the International University College of Turin and the Banca Intesa Sanpaolo, Professor Dr. Thomas M.J. Möllers travelled to Turin to take part in a workshop on the competitiveness of individual territorial production systems in the context of internationalisation and globalisation and the role of innovation and digitalisation within this context. He gave a keynote speech titled "Digitalization - Market Abuse by Short sell attacks and illegal research reports".
June 2017
Ius romanum, Polish law and German law in comparison
The Law Faculty of the University of Augsburg has maintained good connections to Poland for many years. For example, there is a connection with the Faculty of Law in Krakow; there are ERASMUS cooperations; and the Diocese of Augsburg supports stays of students from the University of Olsztyn (Allenstein) in Augsburg. These contacts inspired the idea of binational, historically comparative seminars. In the summer semester 2015, Prof. Dr. Christoph Becker travelled with Augsburg students to Poznań (Poznan) to see Prof. Dr. Wojciech Dajczak and in 2016 he travelled to Warszawa (Warsaw) to see Prof. Dr. Bronisław Sitek. In June 2017, the third binational seminar took place in Augsburg with the lecturers and students from Poznań and Warszawa. These German-Polish encounters will be continued.
12 and 13 June 2017
Lectures by Prof. Dr. Thomas M.J. Möllers in Palermo
As in the previous year, Prof. Dr. Thomas M.J. Möllers visited the Università degli Studi di Palermo at the invitation of Prof. Avv. Enrico Camilleri and gave two lectures on methodological work with legal principles and the constitution.
The lectures were held by Prof. Dr. Möllers within the context of the doctoral programme and titled "How to Work with the Constitution - the Perspective of a Private Lawyer" and "Hard Law - How to Work with Principles in Civil Law". Both lectures were met with broad interest among Italian students and academics.
June 2016
Binational seminar in Warsaw: Ius romanum and ius gentium, Polish law and German law - comparisons between old and present legal systems
Like in the summer of 2015, Prof. Dr. Christoph Becker also organised a cross-border seminar on legal history and comparative law in the summer semester of 2016. The partner and host on the Polish side was Prof. Dr. Bronisław Sitek from the University of Social and Human Sciences in Warsaw. Following an introductory lecture by Prof. Dr. Becker, a total of 16 participants presented their seminar papers and dissertations on an intensive seminar day. The following day, the Augsburg travellers explored Warsaw and its institutions of importance for legal life, history, science and culture, starting with a visit to the Supreme Court of the Republic of Poland.
11 to 17 May 2016
Guest lectures in Palermo
At the invitation of Prof. Avv. Enrico Camilleri , Prof. Dr. Thomas M.J. Möllers stayed at the Università degli Studi di Palermo from 11 to 17 May 2016. The University of Palermo is one of the largest universities in Italy with around 50,000 students and 2,000 academic staff. Prof. Camilleri has been a lecturer at the Augsburg Summer Program for many years.
In Palermo, Prof. Dr. Möllers gave two english lectures on "Experimental Legislation in European Capital Market Law" and "Chances and Risks of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)".
October 2015
9th Krakow-Augsburg Symposium
The 9th Krakow-Augsburg Symposium took place on 23 and 24 October at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. The symposia are the heart of a well-established cooperation and friendship between the Law Faculties of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and the University of Augsburg. They are based on an initiative of Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Jerzy Stelmach and Prof. em. Dr. Reiner Schmidt and take place every two years, alternating between Krakow and Augsburg.
They are always under a general theme. In 2015 the theme was "Creation of Standards".
A total of 18 participants examined the general topic from very different perspectives. Professor Möllers and Professor Becker from CELOS were involved and spoke about "Creation and enforcement of standards in European antitrust, company and capital market law" (Prof. Möllers) and "Systematic creation of civil codes" (Prof. Becker).The lectures will be published in an anthology in the "Krakauer-Augsburger Rechtsstudien".
June 2015
German-polish seminar in Poznań
For many years, the Augsburg faculty has maintained close relations with faculties in Poland, especially with Jagiellonian University in Krakow, but also with academics from Poznan and Warsaw. In June 2015, with the support of the Society of Friends of the University of Augsburg, a first meeting on a student level took place. At the invitation of Prof. Dr. Wojciech Dajczak, Prof. Dr. Christoph Becker travelled to the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan together with the participants of his seminar "Roman Law and the Codes of Poland and Germany". The topics of the seminar were centred around the principle of probity and were each discussed from the perspectives of contemporary Polish and German law. Prof. Franciszek Longchamps de Bérier (Cracow) and Prof. Rafał Wojciechowski (Wroclaw) also took part in the debates.
March 2015
Guest lectures at the Université Jean Moulin in Lyon
At the invitation of Prof. Dr. Frédérique Ferrand, Prof. Dr. Thomas M.J. Möllers stayed at the Université Jean Moulin III in Lyon as a guest professor from 3 to 12 March 2015. Prof. Dr. Ferrand has been a lecturer in the Augsburg Summer Program for many years. In Lyon Prof. Dr. Möllers gave the lecture "Introduction to German Civil Law (BGB)" for French third-year students. The lecture was particularly aimed at students who will participate in an exchange programme with a German university in the following winter semester. He also gave a lecture entitled "The German Constitutional Court's Role in the EU: Driving Force or Illegitimate Lawmakers?".
11 to 17 May 2016
Guest lectures in Palermo
At the invitation of Prof. Avv. Enrico Camilleri , Prof. Dr. Thomas M.J. Möllers stayed at the Università degli Studi di Palermo from 11 to 17 May 2016. The University of Palermo is one of the largest universities in Italy with around 50,000 students and 2,000 academic staff. Prof. Camilleri has been a lecturer at the Augsburg Summer Program for many years.
In Palermo, Prof. Dr. Möllers gave two english lectures on "Experimental Legislation in European Capital Market Law" and "Chances and Risks of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)".
February 2013
Guest professorship and lecture at the Université Jean Moulin in Lyon
On 11 February, Prof. Dr. Thomas M.J. Möllers gave a lecture titled "Regulation and Liability of Rating Agencies - More Efficient Law at European Level? - Regulation and Liability of Rating Agencies - A More Efficient European Law?" in the context of a guest professorship at the Université Jean Moulin III in France.